event
Thursday 17 May 2012: Evolutionary Search for Emergence of Computational Patterns in Cellular Automata
Dr. Emmanuel Sapin - University of Exeter
Harrison 170 15:00-16:00
Can complex behaviour emerge from simple rules? This essential question received a positive answer when Berlekamp showed in 1982 that Conway's automaton known as the Game of Life was indeed Turing-Universal. This, however, posed other questions, among which Wolfram's 16th problem of Twenty Problems in the Theory of Cellular Automata, wondering about the frequency of universality in cellular automata. Gliders, glider guns and logic gate are essential components of theoretical studies in emergence of computation and computational universality of cellular automata. We show how to discover novel simulations of gliders and glider guns and logic gates using evolutionary algorithms. Evolutionary algorithms are stochastic algorithms that incorporate aspects of natural selection or survival of the fittest determined by the value of a fitness function for each individual.
