LIFE IS A CLASS 4 CELLULAR AUTOMATA

To all the ardent Creationists and Theists who keep writing to me re the posts on 'God' on this Blog. Thanks, but no thanks. I respect your need for religion but there are many like me who don't need it. So leave us alone.

Here is a re-post from my Facebook:

LIFE IS A CLASS 4 CELLULAR AUTOMATA
To the Creationists and Theists who inhabit my Facebook, I understand that Religion is ultimately a quantum leap of faith and it is suitable for some people. But I am impressed by my correspondence with a pastor in Georgia, USA-who did use Science to explore alternative views of the origin of the Universe and Life before taking that leap of faith. I applaud him for that though I disagree with his conclusion. He has read Richard Dawkin's many books, Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science, dabbled with Artificial Intelligence, and played with Cellular Automata such as Conway's Game Of Life (available as an iOS app). Cellular Automata are a simulation of Life played out on a grid, where from a few cells, myriad patterns evolve over the generations. Wolfram classified four Classes of cellular automata:
Class 1 - point attractors. The system freezes into a fixed state after a short time (the transient behaviour).
Class 2 - limit cycles. The system develops periodic behaviours, which then repeat continuously.
Class 3 - chaotic. The system becomes aperiodic, continuously changing in unpredictable and random ways.
Class 4 - structured. System can develop in highly patterned but unstable ways. Computationally rich. This is life: part deterministic, part random, always on the edge of Chaos, going against the Second Law Of Thermodynamics' irreversible decay. Class 4 Automata exhibit properties of Emergence, Self-Organization and Evolution, Critical Thresholds, networks and hubs,and non-linearity and also known as Complex Adaptive Systems: human society,stock markets, traffic jams, ant colonies, flocks and herds of animals etc are all Complex Adaptive Systems.

Attached is an image of Conway's Game of Life where with just 5 filled cells (R-Pentamino)and simple rules, a Universe of myriad creatures evolve.

Above screenshot was generated in a few minutes using an App on my iPad. Class 1 dead patterns exist beside Class 2 Oscillators and a Pulsar. On May 18 2010, a new pattern was discovered by Andrew Wade which not only is able to replicate itself, but self-destructs after giving birth. He named it Gemini.

December 26, 2011 at 9:15pm · Like

Unfortunately, Gemini takes 34 million generations to appear. At 0.5 seconds a generation on the computer, it would mean running the program for 196 days. So you can see from this that evolution can throw up astounding results/products but that's because it has the luxury of time.

December 27, 2011 at 8:13am · Like

ONLY IN INDIA

From these photos (whose compilation or authorship is unknown) you can have an idea of the Indian psyche. Of a people in a hurry to climb up the steps of economic development, and of an ingenious people with a pragmatic bent of mind, with a as-long-as-it-gets-done credo. Function and form take into account the local business environment. Never mind that the results sometimes look comical to the rest of the world. On thing for sure is that you will never see the same kind of pictures in China, that other developing giant.

Improvised swimming float

Improvised motorcycle raised pillion

When you are holding a child and need to use your camera in a hurry....

Cooling beer with airconditioner when yu don't have a refrigerator

Peeling onions with motor cycle helmets on to stop the tears

Computer prodigy

Election rally- Audience of one, but the show must go on

A bicycle lock can also be used to prevent sandals from being stolen

Improvised fuel tank

Improvised air bag

My Best Travel And Nature Pix 2011

A typical Chinese small-time business man on the train from Shenzhen to Hong Kong. The ubiquitous cellphone glued to his ears, the soft-case for his documents, and the two large bags containing his wares.

A house of the Swamp Aborigines in the Mangrove swamp of Johor, Malaysia

Aborigine children eating their rice gruel and curried fish

A beauty salon way out in the Florida swamplands: Fellsmere.

An Amish farm at sunset, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania
The ancient (at least 30 years old) ShoeBill stork at Jurong Bird Park, Singapore
A Pied Oriental Hornbill in the trees, Changi Village, Singapore
Discus fish at Qian Hu fishfarm, Singapore

Peeping through the window of a guitar shop in Summit, New Jersey that sells only jazz archtop guitars

A baby Alligator climbing on to a drainpipe of a canal in downtown Melbourne, Florida
Relaxing on a sunny afternoon at a cafe in Annapolis, Maryland
Sunday afternoon Bluegrass jam in a park in Malabar, Florida
Crowd watching gamblers in a card game; in a park in Suzhou, China
Carwash girl in sunny Melbourne, Florida
A row of colorfully clad Indian girls: Ooty, India
A shop in Hong Kong specializing in Chinese gourmet items such as ham, abalone, bird's nest and salted fish
The Desert Inn motel, Yee Haw Junction, FloridaStorks at Jurong Bird Park, Singapore
Barbecue restaurant Mount Doro , Florida
Manatees, swimming up for hand feeding, Grant, Florida
The famous Katz Deli, New York City
A trio of jazzers at Long Island Guitar Show
Old man and the raging sea: Sebastian, Florida a.k.a Treasure Coast where many Spanish galleons carrying gold and other treasures were shipwrecked.
Padaung long-necked woman, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Pretzel shop, in mid-west heartland Omaha, Nebraska, where Warren Buffet lives
The dignified and still strong 80 year old village chief of a tribe of Aborigines living in the Mangrove swamps of Johor, Malaysia

Luck, Destiny and Environment in Life: A Comparison With Algorithmic Trees Generated With LindenMayer Systems

Ten Types of Common Trees In Singapore from Singapore Postage Stamp

* all images generated with Fractal Grower software by Joel Castellanos of University of New Mexico: See http://www.cs.unm.edu/~joel/PaperFoldingFractal/paper.html

1. Leaves on a stem

2. Fern
3. Weed
4. Simple tree.
This post is on what we often ponder: that what shapes our life as we grow is a combination of our genes, our environment, the decisions we make along the way, and random unforeseeable events which had an impact on the path we were traveling on. I choose to compare our lives with the shape of trees. An Oak is as different from a Coconut Tree as a Fern is different from a bush of Roses. An Oak cannot turn into a Coconut Tree and yet each Oak is different. The analogy with Life is that to a certain extent there is a boundary beyond which your Life cannot cross, yet within this boundary, there is considerable freedom for you to choose the the eventual 'shape' you will become. Let us illustrate this with Lindenmayer systems:

Lindenmayer systems are algorithms that are able to generate very realistic-looking trees. If you look at a tree, they are not regular in shape and yet our eyes see a natural kind of symmetry in each tree, and this translates into Beauty. Nature's symmetry is Fractal symmetry and consists of the iteration of simple rules to create complex structures. These rules were discovered by Aristid Lindemayer, a Hungarian botanist and his partner Przemyslaw Prusinkiwicz in the book "The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants". The power of modern computers enable us to generate plant-like images from Lindenmayer's rules. An example of a rule is:

Example 8: Fractal plant

variables : X F

constants : + −

start : X

rules : (X → F-[[X]+X]+F[+FX]-X), (F → FF)

angle : 25°

Here, F means "draw forward", - means "turn left 25°", and + means "turn right 25°". X does not correspond to any drawing action and is used to control the evolution of the curve. [ corresponds to saving the current values for position and angle, which are restored when the corresponding ] is executed. Those who are familiar with Turtle graphics will see that these plan algorithms are very simple and clear. As in all complex systems, there are a lot of variations and Lindenmayer's book " The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants give the details to accommodate these variations into the general system.

* the above taken from Wikipedia.

Thus how a tree grows to look like depends very much on its initial specifications as given by the number of variables, and the constants which inter-act with them, as well as the angle for 'turns' at each point of growth. By varying angles, initial thickness of stems, and speed and intensity of growth, the shape of different trees 'of the same species' can vary quite a lot. And yet they all bear the unmistakable identity of the species. The images above were generated with different initial specifications and iterated for up to 10 generations. * here, I must qualify that a small number of individuals do manage to cross boundaries and 'become' another species e.g.

In the analogy with life, you may be born an unfortunate species. And yet within your boundary, there is much leeway for you to change your shape. In the context of the modern world, factors which will enable you to produce the greatest change within your boundary are:

1. Networking: widen your networks beyond your normal circle of friends and work contacts. If you study the theory of Networks you find that in all networks, a very small number of nodes have the greatest concentration of connections and dominate the network in terms of impact. Be one of those nodes. Also not that network connections grow exponentially.

2. Leverage the use of the Internet to be global and 'scaleable' and reap the returns of exponential feedback effects.

3. Seize opportunities offered by random unforeseen events especially those of a Black Swan type i.e. improbable events which have high impact. Better still, expose yourself to be more likely to meet Black Swans.

Note: Black Swans are the Black Swans of Naseem Nicholas Taleb's book " The Black Swan" and not the Black Swan of the film starring Natalie Portman.

Chinese Claypot Rice and Nutritional Soups

The New Lucky Claypot Rice stall

Rice, Chicken, Pork Sausage, Liver Sausage, and Salted Fish cooked in a claypot
Close up of Claypot Chicken Rice
Black Chicken Soup with Wolfberries, Red Dates and Dang Qui Herb
Braised Chicken Feet and Mushrooms In Dark Soya Sauce
Soup of White Fungus and Pork Ribs
Soup of Lotus Root, Red Dates and Pork Ribs
Chicken Feet and Peanuts Soup
Water Cress and Pork Ribs Soup
Prices for Claypot Rice: S$10= US$8.00
In a previous post on this Blog, I wrote about the joys of eating out in Singapore: the variety, the quality, the convenience- and how I have not cooked at home for three years: See http://www.fu-lu-shou.net/2010/11/affordable-eating-out-increases.html . This post offers another example of affordable, good food in Singapore. The New Lucky Claypot Rice restaurant is situated in Clementi, one of the suburbs of government-built apartments in the west of the island. Claypot Rice is its specialty, and as you can see from the signboard in the top image, it's a popular eating place with an off-peak minimum waiting time of 20-30 minutes and a peak hour waiting time of 50-60 minutes. That's because cooking Claypot Rice is a time-consuming process. It takes at least 20 minutes to cook the rice, chicken, sausage, salted fish in a claypot over a slow charcoal fire. Some other claypot rice stalls have gone commercial and taken a short cut by pre-cooking the rice, and using banks of gas-fired stoves. But the resulting claypot rice is disastrous! Such stalls may offer claypot rice at S$5.00, half the price of New Lucky's claypot rice, but lovers of good food will never go for it. Eating New Lucky's claypot rice is something to be experienced. The chicken, sweet pork sausage, liver sausage and salted fish combine with the slightly burnt rice to give off an aroma that is incomparable. When the rice is cooked the waiter will bring it to your table and open the claypot lid. While the smell is wafting out, you stir in the dark soya sauce and peanut oil to complete the dish. And to go with the claypot rice, New Lucky has an array of soups in line with the Chinese philosophy of using soup as nutritional balance. Thus, as you can see from above, we have soups with interesting ingredients:

Black Chicken Soup: A 'heaty' soup full of Yang (the male/positive element in Yin-Yang). With Dong Quai herb, red dates and Wolfberries. The Black Skinned chicken is a special breed that when boiled and the soup drunk, gives you strength and energy. I never could take this stuff. One bowl of it Black Chicken soup, and I get a sore throat. It is just too over-powering.

Braised Chicken Feet and Mushroom: This is like a stew and the gelatinous chicken feet contrasts well with the mushrooms' texture. Chicken feet also supposed to be good for health though I have forgotten why. The dark soya sauce gravy has the smell of Cinnamon, Clove and Star Anis.

White Fungus and Pork Ribs: Don't know the proper name of the white fungus, but it has no taste. The texture reminds me of jelly fish. The pork ribs are only for making the soup tasty; as in all the other soups below. Usually the ribs are not eaten and all the nutrition has gone into the soup. The white fungus is for cleansing (detoxifying) your body.

Lotus Root, Red Dates and Pork Ribs soup- Another cooling and cleansing soup for hot weather. Lotus root is tasteless but crunchy. Red Dates are not from the Arabian dates palm, but the fruit of a deciduous shrub found in China. Red Dates, enhances what the effect of whatever Chinese herbs is used for the soup.

Chicken Feet with Peanuts: This soup is supposed to be good for people who have weak legs. Anyway the peanuts are a nice taste complement to the chicken feet. What you get is a very tasty soup that seems to give an instant burst of energy.

Water Cress with Pork Ribs: My favorite soup for hot weather. After a while the water cress 'disintegrates', and all the goodness is in the soup. A tasty, almost sweet soup that really cools you down.

Except for the Black Chicken soup, all the soups are 'cooling' soups. That's because the claypot rice is a 'heaty' dish, that has absorbed the energy and heat of the charcoal fire used to cook it. The clay pot itself also plays a big part- try cooking this dish in an aluminum or steel dish and it just doesn't taste the same at all!.