Hex Automata: "Entanglement". Rule 408 + Seed 4.005

New experimental results support Penrose & Hameroff's conjecture that cognition involves interaction of quantum states inside of microtubules in the brain. For details, see these links:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchest...
www.newscientist.com/article/...
evolutionnews.org/2024/01/bra....
2-Dimensional cellular automata, hexagonal array,
Color-coding of cells age/life-status:
All colored cells are alive except blue-colored cells.
yellow = just born (state = 1),
red = alive 2 or more time-steps (state = 1),
blue = fading "ghost" of cell that died (state = 0),
black = empty space (state = 0),
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General Procedure:
STEP 1). Make a 2-dimensional grid (array) of "cells" which can each have a value of 0 (off/dead) or 1 (on/alive). Conway's famous "Game of Life" cellular automaton uses a square grid, but here we use a hexagonal grid (chicken-wire or honeycomb). Initialize the grid by filling it with all zeros. This is the "main grid".
STEP 2). Add a starting "seed" pattern to the main grid by changing some of the cell values to "1" (on/alive). Sometimes specific compact seeds are used, alternatively sometimes they are a random unstructured spread of ones that II call "primordial soup".
STEP 3). The program then looks at every cell in the entire main grid, one-by-one. When examining each cell, the total number of live neighbor cells is counted among its 6 immediately adjacent neighbor cells (if using "totalistic" rules). The program then consults the rule-set to decide if the central cell will be alive (1, on) or dead (0, off) in the next time-step. In order to not disturb the cell pattern that is being updating, all of these new values are accumulated on a separate "temporary grid".
STEP 4). After every cell is updated on the temporary grid, the main grid is re-initialized to all zeros, and then the temporary grid is copied to the main grid
STEP 5). Repeat Steps 3 & 4 for hundreds or thousands of iterations. The result of each iteration serves as the input for the next iteration. The grid is finite, so the live cell pattern will eventually go repeat or go extinct, although this could take thousands of time-steps.
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Note: this "Hexagon-Multiverse" (HMCA) cellular automaton is similar to Conway's famous "Game of Life" in the sense that both are 2-dimensional, have binary cell states, and are synchronous and deterministic. But the Game of Life uses a square grid, while the HMCA uses a more natural (common in nature) and more symmetrical hexagonal grid. Additionally, the HMCA achieves interesting results using a variety of rule-sets, whereas the Game of Life is limited to a single rule-set.
Hexagonal Cell Array: remains constant at 80 columns x 80 rows.
Periodic boundary conditions: horizontal & vertical dimensions wrap across opposite edges, giving a finite closed continuous surface equivalent to a 2-torus (the surface of a standard 3-d ring donut).
Neighborhood: semi-totalistic (details to be published at a future date),
Rule-set 408 full designation: 93216 - 32 - 1468 - 206819,
This rule-set was found by using the "Averaged-Biased Random" search method, in which the average of all published rule-sets is used to bias the output of a pseudo-random number generator. (Every binary digit is individually averaged across all of the rule-sets.)
Time: 329 steps (display rate 5 fps). The first & final frames are shown for 1 & 2 seconds, respectively.
Live cell population: starts at 4, and reaches a maximum of 1402 on time-step 238, and then ends with 1152 on the final time-step 329.
Resolution: 2578 screen pixels per cell,
Program: "Hexagon-Multiverse 1.0" (unpublished), PHP language.
Platform: MacBook Pro (M1), Sonoma 14.1.1 OS, Safari 17.1 browser.

[@arbieroo5679]

I'm fascinated by the behaviour of the corners of the original expanding hexagon!

[@hexagon-multiverse]

I should look at the mechanics (sub-rule/cell pattern interplay) at work in that process. To see if it's easily expressible in plain language, or instead if it's a complicated meshing of gears that strain the brain. By "sub-rule" I mean a rule that applies to a single digit (bit) in the binary expression of the rule-set. IOW, a rule that applies to one of the unique neighborhood configurations.

[@arbieroo5679]

Fascinating re: the quantum consciousness news. I've been frustrated with the lack of experimentally testable theory in the field for decades.

[@hexagon-multiverse]

I've been interested in Roger Penrose's ideas for a long time, both regarding quantum consciousness, as well as his Conformal Cyclic Cosmology. As for the issue of quantum effects in consciousness -- I was excited several years ago when evidence was found for quantum effects in plant photosynthesis (manifested as parallel processing to find the most efficient path for energy transfer away from photo-excited chlorophyl). This was surprising because most physicists insisted that quantum states could not survive long enough to be useful at room temperature in aqueous media. The observation of quantum effects in microtubules at room temperature now makes the Penrose/Hameroff conjecture much more plausible.
It seems reasonable to me that quantum effects should be involved in consciousness. After all, there is much discussion about the difficulty of defining the "observer" in quantum measurements. But an observer is needed to collapse superpositions and entangled states. I think quantum mechanics goes deeper than the matter/energy level of existence. QM is right down there in the "basement" along with consciousness and "creatio ex nihilo".

[@arbieroo5679]

@@hexagon-multiverse I'm overdue a re-read of The Emperor's New Mind.

[@hexagon-multiverse]

Now that you mention it, I realize that I too need to re-read it too!

[@alexkuhn5078]

looks like Mardi Gras

[@hexagon-multiverse]

Colorful strings of beads everywhere!