Bio

Dave Greene is a software engineer with an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Cornell University and a long-standing interest in cellular automata, particularly in search problems in 2D CAs such as the Conway’s Life rule. After discovering a small stable glider reflector in 2001, he was drawn into long-term, though intermittent, work on various open problems in the field.

More recent CA projects include several collaborative efforts with Paul Chapman aimed at building a working two-state self-replicator in Conway’s Life, as well as weblogs and other online resources documenting new findings. Dave is also a part-time tester and developer for a fast open-source CA editor, Golly. Golly can use a hashtable lookup system to simulate even very large patterns or very long timesteps, as long as there is enough regularity in the pattern. For example, Golly can run several types of self-replicating patterns through multiple complete cycles, using a wide variety of rules.

Dave’s other interests include aperiodic tilings, artificial life, genetic algorithms, particle physics, cryptography, back-country hiking, and contra dancing.

Project: Mathematica and Golly: Visualization and Data Analysis for Small- and Large-Scale Structures in 2D CA

It was not possible to complete the integration of the MathLink template with Golly’s existing command-line codebase, given the tight schedule at the NKS Summer School. Initial work has been done on the command architecture, and a first-draft command-line build of Golly with a working link to Mathematica should be available shortly.

Favorite Four-Color Totalistic Cellular Automaton

Rule 123469