HexHAL - Hexagonal Hardware Artificial Life |
A version of this applet using Sun's Java plug-in is available here.IntroductionThis applet displays a cellular automata substrate capable of supporting self-reproducingentitieswith distinct phenotypes. It is a cut-down version of HAL, based on a hexagonal neighbourhood, and with fewer states per cell. It uses the Tripod neighbourhood. Changes from HALHexHAL was concieved to be a minimalistic version of HAL.The different neighbourhood allows fewer neighbours, which makes for a simpler and more compact automaton. It uses 83 states per cell - which fits into seven bits of storage space. HexHAL exibits a phenomenon strongly reminiscent of abiogenesis. Small collections of random configurations of cells easily give rise to self-replicating entities. Things that were deliberately removed from HAL include:
Things that are present in HAL, which need to be added to HexHAL:
It was hoped to add a reversible computation layer - based on the Triumphant neighbourhood. This looks like it may be impractical, though - due to its not being in keeping with the "small size" philosophy.
Previous workHexHAL may be the first ever non-trivial hexagonal self-reproducing automata.
Interactive controlsThe applet is interactive, allowing you to apply selection based on organisms visual characteristics using a variety of implements.
DownloadsThis applet can also be run as an application. Download this jar file (using shift-click) and double-click on it.Source code is available - with a "no-restrictions" license. Download this zip file. |