Arcs (New Rule)

[codacimo]

This is an interesting rule I accidentally discovered a little while ago. I have very little education regarding cellular automata; I just think they're interesting and like to play around with Golly. So I may not use the right terminology.

This rule makes square shapes that expand indefinitely, switching between two different "phases". I've made the colors of these phases very close together to reduce their flashing.

Interesting things happen when two of these shapes that are out of phase enter one another's space; they interfere with each other and become progressively less structured-looking. I added a rule that colors certain cells to form a brightly-colored border between the two out-of-phase shapes so that their border is easier to see.

This border behaves in ways that sometimes look like arcs of electricity, hence the name. Often one of the shapes will shrink away completely, or the border between the two will level out and oscillate between various states, sometimes even becoming an unchanging straight line. I'd think that this "settling-down" must happen to all systems in this rule eventually, but I haven't studied that very rigorously.

There's an extra cell state that isn't written into the rules, I use cells in this state to draw circles around the expanding shapes to keep them within a smaller area. I'm pretty sure that doing this isn't a conventional thing with CA's, it's just useful for me.

Here is the rule:

@RULE Arcs

@TABLE
n_states:5
neighborhood:Moore
symmetries:rotate8
var a={1,2}
var b={0,1,2}
var c={0,1,2,3}
var d=c
var e=c
var f=c
var g=c
var h=c
var i=c
var j=c
var k=b
var l=b
var m=b
var n=b
var o=b
var p=b
var q=b
var r=b
a,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,3 #phase 1 cells change to phase 2 cells
0,3,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,1 #dead cells neighboring a phase 2 cell become phase 1 cells
3,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,0 #phase 2 cells die
a,3,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,2 #phase 1 cells touching phase 2 cells are highlighted

@COLORS
0 0 0 0 #dead cell
1 20 20 20 #phase 1 cell
2 0 255 150 #phase 1 highlighted cell
3 15 15 15 #phase 2 cell
4 120 120 120 #container cell (drawn around other cells to keep them from expanding indefinitely)

[dani]

Welcome to the forums! This rule is actually quite fascinating:

Code: Select all

x = 61, y = 61, rule = Arcs
20.C10$40.A10$10.A49.C10$30.A10$C49.A10$20.A10$40.C!

I wonder if it's even possible to build logic gates or anything of the sorts. Here's a 2 glider collision:

Code: Select all

x = 23, y = 6, rule = Arcs
3A$2.A$.A$21.C$20.2C$20.C.C!

[codacimo]

Thank you. I'm not sure if it's actually possible to construct anything using this rule, but the randomness is interesting.