Life for the SPV

[Guest muff]

Another little app :)

Based on John Conway's rules for those that know

http://www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html

First and final version :P

Kind of mesmerising once you start watching it :o

select button resets the grid, back button quits

enjoy

muff

SPVLife.zip

[Guest Matt Kirby]

Cool little prog!

Now the SPV can create life it can do anything! :twisted:

[Guest sbrandsborg]

How long time shall i wait before there will come a dog? hehe

[Guest muff]

sbrandsborg: you have to pay for the dog version :)

this version is amoeba only :o

[Guest yoos]

Interesting... It is mesmerizing! Messes with the brain... Kind of a simulation of the big bang...

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

Very strange :?

[Guest muff]

strange ?? :o

life in 17k (uncompressed) aint strange - it's a bloody miracle :)

of course if I could get it to react voice/sound input to affect the environment, now that would be strange (or cool) - different places would affect the life development in different ways

hmm... that's not a bad idea :P

now how do I read the microphone input.... (muff wanders off into SDK land :()

[Guest muff]

in fact thinking about it that could be a new control system for future games......

[Guest muff]

I'm hoping this is the start of a series of A-life experiments on the SPV

I'm interested in the idea that we can use the SPV to develop artificial environments, and then through the miracle of internet access or even irda all these phones can connect together to form one giant environment :P

think about it, smartphone running smart-life :)

now that would be strange awarner :(

of course it could just be the shandy talking :o

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

I was not sure what Brian Conway's rules were but now I understand a bit more :)

I only ment what was being displayed was strange as in differentunusual etc.

[Guest muff]

awarner - yeah, sorry m8, you're right, I should have made it a bit clearer what the hell this program was :o

when you're into this stuff you kinda forget others dont have a clue what you're talking about :)

I promise I wont release the DNA resequencer without proper instructions :P

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

awww go on I dare you :)

[Guest muff]

awww go on I dare you :)

rofl :o

[Guest muff]

the big risk is that it'll convert your handset into a Nokia :o

until I can stop that I wont release :)

[Guest idavid]

this thingy is great. i reckon there is loads of potential for turning it into a sort of interactive ant-farm/petri-dish/game/screen saver. with just a little bit of influence over it, it would be great to see how you could change it. did you ever see that screensaver germs. its kinda similar.

nice one. looking forward to the next version... [nudge, nudge] :)

[Guest Palindrome]

Could you post a link to Brian Conway and his rules. Cheers.

[Guest HungrySPV]

I'm hoping this is the start of a series of A-life experiments on the SPV

I'm interested in the idea that we can use the SPV to develop artificial environments, and then through the miracle of internet access or even irda all these phones can connect together to form one giant environment :o

Isn't that how it all started in Terminator :)

[Guest muff]

Could you post a link to Brian Conway and his rules. Cheers.

just do a google - there's plenty of stuff out there - the theories are 30+ years old now

[Guest Palindrome]

What I mean is if anyone has a link handy that will point me to a page relating specifically to the rules featured in this topic I would be most grateful.

Believe me, the first thing I've tried was a google search but I got a mishmash of folk musicians and highbrow science relating to thermodynamics (which is interesting if you're into Dr Who, any ideas which episode I'm talking about Dr Who fans?) but all I want is an easily understandable description of the ins and outs of what the rules this ap is based on.

[Guest Myke]

yeah a link to the theory in the 1st post would have been nice.. to me they looks like a pretty design. or mating dots. not sure what exactly is going on. if someone could explain whats goin on in it that would be neat

[Guest nobznss]

Are you sure it's not John Conway? Or are we talking about something different? This is what I know about John Conway (If you're talking about something different nevermind all this stuff):

First conceived by the British Mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970, "Life" was originally described as a "solitaire game" that would be played out by hand on a board with a square grid and round marker pieces. The arrival of computers with interactive graphics has made it a lot easier to view and experiment with the game.

Each change in the board is a "generation"; cells are born, live and die in each generation according to very simple rules (called Conway's "genetic laws" in the original Scientific American article):

1. A cell with two or three neighbors lives on in the next generation.

2. A cell with four or more neighbors dies from overcrowding.

3. A new cell is born in any empty grid square with exactly three cells surrounding it in adjacent squares.

Despite the simplicity of the rules, the figures that emerge in a game of life can exhibit some very sophisticated behavior. Usually, groups of nearby cells increase and then disappear, seemingly boil up and evaporate as the generations roll on. But sometimes certain persistent forms emerge from the random patterns in the game. Some forms are "stable" structures that don't change between generations. Some forms are dynamic and move between two or three (or sometimes more !) shapes in an endless cycle. The most common of these is the blinker, which stays in one place and alternates between two shapes. It's common to see several stable forms and one or more blinkers left over at the end of a game of life. You might also see gliders, shapes that seem to glide across the grid, changing in cycles between three or more shapes. Every game begins with a different random dispersal of cells, so anything can happen!

Am I on the right track??

[Guest amo]

Isn't that how it all started in Terminator :)

My phone has just become self aware :twisted:

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

:) :o :P

[Guest muff]

sorry, my bad

nobznss is correct, it should be John Conway (I have no idea what I was thinking with Brian), and those are indeed the rules (and there are plenty of variants out there now)

sorry for any confusion