Algodoo

Earlier today, my friend was introducing me to a Game of Life program.

I noticed a strange pattern in it called "Langton's Ant".

We both did some research, and long story short: Langton's Ant is a celluar automata algorithm.

There is an ant, and a grid of black and white tiles.

In this simulation, the ant is depicted as a circle. By pressing "START", the simulation will begin and the ants will behave accordingly.

Basically, every tick the ant moves. If it is currently on a black tile, it will turn, and if it is on a white tile, it will turn the other way. It will then flip the color of the current tile, and then move on to the next tile.

This can result in some pretty interesting phenomena. I am not sure whether or not this is turing complete, however I do have a hunch it is.

Eventually every scene with 1 ant and no external interference (i.e. once the simulation is running, you dont modify it anymore) will result in the ant moving in a certain direction infinitely.

Regardless, I have included a few extras in the scene as well!

You can move the ant with the move tool before pressing Start. Note that the ant will snap to a grid of sorts.

You can duplicate the ant by cloning it, and you can invert its rotation by clicking on it.

As well, before the simulation starts, you can click on a tile to invert it - click on a white tile to change it to black and vice versa.

Have phun!

2022 - 2023 XCS


UPDATE: Ant trails now have collision.