From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Date: Sun Jul 18 1999 - 09:36:26 MDT
Hash life is like the game of life except that you use lookup tables to
determine the future n state of an area, the area being described losing
one unit in height and width each generation, which is like the
'lightcone' outside of which it cannot, by definition, be affected from
outside. It's described with more eloquence and much more detail in Hans
Moravec's _Mind Children_.
So, you start out with regular life, start building lookup tables, then
as it evolves you can rely on the lookup tables more and more. I'm not
sure what would ensue if you allow the looked-up configurations to merge
into the main screen prior to their scheduled time. I've thought for a
while (agreeing with Hans Moravec) that we're much more likely to be in
a simulation of life rather than real life itself. It's an exciting
time, on the cusp of the singularity, and possibly worthy of study by
already transcended beings. If so, rather than SETI, we might be able to
find existance of such intelligence in scientific and mathematical laws
that look like code optimizations and compression techniques.
If I were designing such a system, I'd provide the ability to add to the
compression techniques whenever the beings within the simulation
discovered a new law. So once Benfords Law becomes noticed, for example,
I might start using it in the simulation (in lieu of the
still-compressible but not as efficient variant I had been using), in
which case it would be found in more and more areas in the simulation.
Applying this idea to all reality, I'd rely on the sim-beings to design
a good part of the simulation. I would just jostle virtual molecules
around, for example (maybe even using a version of pre-scheduled merging
hash life to speed things up), till they formed a replicating form.
They'd be too primitive to notice the apparently faster than light and
action at a distance effects.
Or maybe just start out with 4 elements, maybe earth, water, fire, air
for example, and progressively extract elements out of this as they are
'discovered' by the sim-beings, which allows for more compressibility
(thus allowing the simulation system to model higher complexity states),
instead of adding more 'humours' to these as I had been doing.
-Mike
links: http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19990710/thepowerof.html
http://www.treasure-troves.com/math/BenfordsLaw.html
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-- ====================================================================== Michael Wiik Principal Messagenet Communications Research Washington DC Area Internet and WWW Consultants http://messagenet.com mwiik@messagenet.com ======================================================================
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