From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jim Choate To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: [9fans] Re: secret stuff Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 20:58:56 -0500 Topicbox-Message-UUID: afd004bc-eaca-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 On Sun, 16 Jun 2002, Russ Cox wrote: > I'm not sure Stephen Wolfram would agree > with your invocation of the Second Law of > Thermodynamics in this particular context. Ask him. CA's are bound by the 2nd also (otherwise they wouldn't be universal computing machines (ala TM's, re Rule 110). EVERYTHING is bound by the three laws of thermodynamics. Everything. If you find a program that isn't bound by the 2nd then you will have also solved the Halting Problem and created a perpetual motion machine (or at least a machine that pumps heat from cold to hot). I have to say I had much higher hopes for CA's and his new book. For example I was hoping he was going to extend them to non-adjacent neighborhoods, expansion of Ruckers CVCA's, mixed rules, small world networks, non-local neighborhoods, etc. I've been following his work since the early 80's. He got too focused on the rules and ignored the geometry, fatal mistake for this theory. I first ran across him because he played Traveller and won the Trillion Credit Squadron event (don't remember the exact date or value but this is close enough for this discussion) by using 'swarm' tactics via small ships. There's a whole host of applications for CA's that Stephen missed. It's ok, many others are working on them also. One of these days when it's far enough along the results will be interesting (to say the least). The basic idea is sound though, the cosmos is basically a bunch of agents connected by geometry and network rules (ie particles and fields, Super Symmetry, the favorit GUT candidate of the week). As an aside, I use a CA model based on small world networks and non-local neighborhoods to model Hangar 18's network. And no, I didn't read the book. There was very little actually applicable to the stuff I'm using CA's for. -- ____________________________________________________________________ When I die, I would like to be born again as me. Hugh Hefner ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com jchoate@open-forge.org www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------