Langton’s Ant: Creating Endless Order From Chaos
by Anorak | 8th, April 2014
LANGTON’S Ant is a story of habit. Scientist Chris Langton discovered the phenomenon in 1986.
Chris Langton
If you were to put an ant down on a grid of squares and ask the ant to follow two rules something odd would happen.
The rules:
1. If you are on a white square, turn 90° right, change the colour of the square to black, and move forward one unit square.
2. If you are on a black square, turn 90° left, change the colour of the square to white, and move forward one square.
The ant menders about. Then after around, say, 10,000 moves, the ant contructs a “highway,” following a repeating loop of 104 steps that unfolds forever.
Posted: 8th, April 2014 | In: Strange But True, Technology Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
