I've created sentient life

Ok no I haven't but I think we could do it.

Before I start, you should look at this. That's Conway's game of life. It's a basic little cellular automaton. I'm gonna be honest and say that I don't know much about cellular automatons but I don't think that matters.

Conway's simulation lays down a set of rules for a 2D array. Based on position and neighboring cells, a cell either lives, dies, or multiplies. Basic rules but put into practice it looks really interesting. Now, when you think about it, doesn't our world work the same (in theory)?

We live in a 3D space with rules that are laid down (Atoms, String Theory, all that stuff). In the beginning, assuming that the big bang is true, matter was just scattered everywhere with no set pattern. And from the madness, planets formed, life formed, and we formed. All these occurrences happened from a random scattering of matter that eventually created sentient life.

So what if we scale up a game of Conway's game of life to be on par with the size of the universe? Or what if we scale up any cellular automaton? What if we make a 10 trillion by 10 trillion game of Conway's game of life, randomize every individual cell, make it so the game moves 5000 steps at a time, and let it go for an undefined amount of time. Would sentient life eventually pop up? I mean, the conditions are a lot like what started our universe, except with different physics. What would happen?

What I think is eventually a universe would form like ours formed, except it would be under the rules of Conway's game of life, not under the rules that our universe follows. Given enough time, and the right random conditions, maybe the dots would form into something that could sustain itself. Life would form, the dots would make a pattern that would allow something to be stored inside of them. Anything is possible, right?

We would basically be looking at a digital universe that we created that we have all powerful control over. We could pause it, manipulate cells and whatnot. Could you imagine? We could have digital life.

But you see what I mean.

Also Best Friends Forever 3 came out, check it out. The Bow Game is coming along and I think I've settled on the name Mt. Covonaco, but it's not settled. A little deeper information could be found on my forum, and eventually I'll put a demo for Shark City/Covonaco up there </shameless advert>

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KillerWaffles 2010-03-15 14:33:19

I think I might have to change my under garments.

PIED3 2010-03-15 15:26:12

The Sims 4?

Doomsday-One 2010-03-15 15:35:43

Wow, best argument for the Big Bang vs. God I've ever seen.
Even if not intentional, I'm using that.

JonBro 2010-03-15 16:58:28

I think I've actually played something like the Conway's simulation thing. Isn't it something like, a dot by itself dies by loneliness, a dot surrounded by several dots dies from overcrowding, and all other inbetween combinations multiply? Maybe it's not the same thing but if it's not it's surely similar.

Also Mt. Covonaco isn't a very good name for the game, I thought that was just the joke name of the mountain lol

Skeik 2010-03-15 16:58:28

Then lets change the name lol

SirDarkness 2010-03-15 17:05:27

Well... I don't quite agree with the premises.
Though I agree that we are nothing but a random coincidence (and a small one at that), the "set of rules" by which the universe goes is much larger (to the date not completely found out), complicated (to the date not completely understood too!) and interrelated than those of the "game of life". Let's just for a moment assume that you create such a big game of life, it would still behave as a simple computer program. Stimulus such as neighboring cells will ALWAYS (capitalization for dramatic effect) have the same consequence, and the movementes (make it 5000 or 5 billion) would ALWAYS (idem) be random.
The fact that makes life sentient is the capacity to react in ways not "corresponding" to those of the stimulus, and to move and act not randomly.

Let me clarify. Why don't we assume we are actually nothing but a big game of life... after let's say... 5000 turns? we would have realized which conditions define multiplication, and which define life or death... and we would stop mopving randomly, and start moving towars our goal (be it whichever of the three). The computer program, would not. They would keep on moving at random even if it costs them their "life"...

I don't... have I made myself clear? any opinions appreciated ^^

Skeik 2010-03-15 17:05:27 (Updated 2010-03-15 17:47:15)

What are we at our core but a bunch of elements and atoms? All that makes you who you are are a bunch of chemicals in your brain telling you what and what not to do. Nothing in this world is completely random, everything follows a set a rules. At it's very base people theorize that the universe is made of strings, that are either open or closed (At least, that's what I remember string theory being). All things can be explained through physics. Just as in Conway's game of life, everything can be explained by those three different rules.

You do what you do because your brain commands you to think. And in your brain are a set of chemicals that respond to outside stimuli. Think of yourself as a robot, that's running through a maze. You've been programmed to run through the maze and not run into any walls. It doesn't mean you have free will. Everything that you do, in a sense, is programmed. The brain is just a big fat computer program. It tells you when you when to do something based on things you've experienced in the past, and the stimuli you're receiving in the present. You're sentience is just the result of the makeup of your brain. Your brain is still a computer program, at it's base.

Now, why can't we emulate that in Conway's game of life. I know it's a ridiculous notion and I'm not 100% serious with this but it's a nice little though isn't it? Conway's game of life isn't random, it follows rules just like our universe does. Now, by some crazy chance, the dots aligned themselves in a way to create an object that would move and get bigger by consuming another group of dots that act as food for the other dot, that only exist at certain points on a large group of dots that produce the groups of dots that the first group of dots eat... This process could go on until something that realizes it exists based on the dot makeup, just like your brain does for you.

This is all based on the fact that nothing in Conways game of life isn't random, because it isn't random.