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Has anyone tried to code the rules genetically? For an instance: a new living cell inherits rules from its parents (cross-mixing). New patterns emerge like fire or fluid and levels of trophism can be noticed. Some patterns are the basis for subsequent ones. The universe ends at a "minimum energy" in the shape of a maze (usually). Another interesting improvement is the chaining of universes. A newborn cell is new in a Level 0 and Level 1 universe. A dying cell dies in Level 0 and Level 1. Somehow related universes last longer and produce new types of co-ops (level0 + level1) gliders and spaceships.

this seems fun, but i propose a move to OCA

marlow75 wrote: June 26th, 2024, 11:55 amAnother interesting improvement is the chaining of universes. A newborn cell is new in a Level 0 and Level 1 universe. A dying cell dies in Level 0 and Level 1. Somehow related universes last longer and produce new types of co-ops (level0 + level1) gliders and spaceships.

The way that I interpret this description is that there are two "parallel universes", and if the content of the two universes is identical, the behavior is identical to the normal behavior of a single universe.

The interesting cases only happen when there's a different pattern in Level 0 from what's in in Level 1.

We already have lots of Golly rules like Rule:DoubleB3S23 that emulate two parallel universes in one four-state Golly universe. I seem to remember that ideas have come up occasionally in the rule request thread for rare effects that propagate between universes, like maybe something non-standard that happens only when a cell has eight ON neighbors (for example). Haven't gone looking for any examples yet, but this seems like a suggestion along somewhat similar lines.

I suspect a request in the rule request thread for a Golly rule with this behavior would produce a rule table file fairly quickly, if one doesn't exist already.

To a very limited extent, the "genetic coded rules" idea could also be implemented via Golly rules with additional states -- one for each possible rule, maximum of 256 rules -- but in the grand scheme of things, 2^8 is an awfully small number of rules!

evoloop-style evolution maybe?

marlow75 wrote: June 26th, 2024, 11:55 am [...] Another interesting improvement is the chaining of universes. A newborn cell is new in a Level 0 and Level 1 universe. A dying cell dies in Level 0 and Level 1. Somehow related universes last longer and produce new types of co-ops (level0 + level1) gliders and spaceships.

Related discussion:
Codependent Game of Life
MultipleB3S23
Wandering spaceships and manipulation via ruleswitches