How It Works
Each cell contains a tiny program from a minimal instruction set. Programs execute, read and write to neighboring cells, and occasionally copy themselves. Starting from random program soup, self-replicating programs spontaneously emerge and dominate.
Applications
Origins of life research, understanding how self-replication emerges from random computation, bridging artificial life and theoretical computer science.
watch random noise coalesce into colored blooms as self-replicators emerge·mutation rate controls variation·color shows program identity