[FRIAM] stygmergy, CA's, and [biological] development

[Roger Critchlow]

This excellent blog post about planaria and their insane regenerative
abilities turned up on hackernews barely two weeks ago,

  https://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=10007

-- rec --


On Tue, Oct 19, 2021 at 3:42 PM uǝlƃ ☤>$ <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yes, some types of CA can be stygmergic. The separation between the
> environment and the agent is clear in that the "agent" is the per-cell
> algorithm (some CAs have multiple algorithms, a spectrum from a global
> algorithm updating all cells to a different algorithm for each cell). The
> "environment" is the state of the cell at any given time. You might even go
> so far as to allow for the evolution of the algorithm(s) based on the
> contents of the cell ... or the evolution of the structure of the cellular
> state based on its history (the simplest form being where each cell
> accumulates state).
>
> But, no, not everything is stygmergic. A typical CA, with a global,
> synchronized, buffered update and all you're looking at  is the historical
> visualization of that state would not be. The primary problem is the
> buffering. If the buffer is flushed every cycle, there's no cumulative
> effect. So your example below is not stygmergic.
>
> On 10/19/21 12:24 PM, thompnickson2 at gmail.com wrote:
> > Let me try to stretch the point and see if I can bring you on board.  In
> the first place, mimimally, stygmergy need not involve sociality.  So, If I
> go out on a hike and cut blazes on trees on my way out so I can find my way
> home, that is stygmergy in good standing, right?
> >
> >
> >
> > Now let’s try a very simple ca where the rule is, if nothing is written,
> write x; if x, white o beside; if o, write x beside.
> >
> >
> >
> > X
> >
> > OXO
> >
> > XOXOX
> >
> > ETC.
> >
> >
> >
> > Now, if we consider what is written at each stage as a thing put out in
> the environment and the “rules” what the organism brings to the table  then
> each line is the joint product of the previous line and the rule, hence
> stygmergy.
> >
> >
> >
> > Am I stretching a point.  Is everything not stygmergy?
>
> --
> "Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie."
> ☤>$ uǝlƃ
>
>
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