I was staring blankly into some wireworld creations when it hit me: (my mother’s hand, and...) TPT is one of the best cellular automaton simulators around. Then I thought that, even with the wide range of life forms currently, there is a void that needs filling: life in the first dimension (or elementary cellular automata). It works as follows:

                Like 2d life, each cell can see its direct neighbours and itself.

                The state of each cell is governed by a table, which is reviewed, each step:

                                |000|001|010|011|100|101|110|111|

                                | -X-| -X-| -X-| -X-|-X-| -X-| -X-| -X-|

Where an ‘X’ is an interchangeable new value (on/off or alive/dead) and the binary above  gives the value of the cell’s neighbours (the middle one is itself). This combination is used to find the value of the cell after the step review.

The rule can be summarised in a single number, with the value of the  ‘X’s in the above order, eg.’ 1,0,0,0,1,1,1,1’ = 10001111 base 2 = 153 base 10 (I think)

                This rule (by default 110 base 10) is stored as the life’s tmp.

It is difficult to explain concisely, but you can Google it, and correct any errors I have made for implementation. The behaviour of the new element will be simple:

                Each frame, the new string of life cells will be drawn below the current one, which has been destroyed but remembered. This way you can have multiple strings happening at once. The string will be horizontal – which is the norm. With this setting the persistence display will be used to view structures that will be generated. The reason I choose rulestring 110 is that it is famous for its Turing completeness. The console can be used to change the rulestring stored in tmp as a decimal base 10.

                If you have had trouble understanding this, just tell me and I will adjust the thread. Note: this setup needs just one new element, perhaps named 1DEM in the life menu.

Yes, I did - in fact you are the reason for me ever searching this! I thought that it would be nice to be able to study this life on a much larger scale - like the 2d automata. I suppose that a cell reads all other cells the same, but I don't know how an off cell will decide which rulestring to spawn with.

I am in year nine. All I want is to share the wierd and wonderful shapes that can be made with this type of life form. I believe that there is one to make the Skieptbjgfjnnnn (It's a wierd name) Gasket, but it could be a different type of life. I find it mind boggling that a one dimensional life form can be anywhere near Turing Complete!

edit: rule 90 makes skiepinskifdsgfdg gasket, as well as some others, from just 1 living cell.