>Factorio (and also games like SimCity) are not actually pure CA rules, but they combine cellular automata techniques together with many other techniques like system dynamics, etc.
Will Wright gave a great explanation of how simulation games combine different techniques together in three intersection dimensions: Topologies (agents, networks, and layers), dynamics (propagation, growth, grouping, order, allocation, mapping, specialization, and nesting), and paradigms (cybernetics, system dynamics, cellular automata, chaos theory, adaptive systems, network theory).
>When I saw this title, I first thought it was about understanding the cockroach-like aliens in Factorio, but it is actually about queuing and congestion and parallel processing with conveyor belts and factories!
>Factorio players will recognize these tapes of construction instructions as 2D "blueprints" that construction drones use to build patterns of factories and conveyor belts, etc. In Factorio, after your drones have build a blueprint in the unpowered, unsupplied state, you can connect it to the power grid, hook up pipes to deliver fluids, and run conveyor belts in and out of it to deliver resources and products, and it will immediately starts doing its thing. Playing Factorio is uncannily like von Neumann 29 state cellular automata programming, not by coincidence. So it's a great way to get your head around cellular automata programming, gpu programming, parallel programming, queuing systems, and data flow programming in general!
>Here's some stuff about that I posted in an earlier discussion, and transcribed from John von Neumann's book, "Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata".
>His concept of self-reproducing mutating probabilistic quantum mechanical machine evolution is quite fascinating and terrifying at the same time (or outside of time), potentially much more powerful and dangerous than mere physical nanotechnology "gray goo" and universe-infesting self replicating von Neumann probes:
Factorio 1.0
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24155609
https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-360
>Friday Facts #360 - 1.0 is here!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24163024
>Factorio (and also games like SimCity) are not actually pure CA rules, but they combine cellular automata techniques together with many other techniques like system dynamics, etc.
Will Wright gave a great explanation of how simulation games combine different techniques together in three intersection dimensions: Topologies (agents, networks, and layers), dynamics (propagation, growth, grouping, order, allocation, mapping, specialization, and nesting), and paradigms (cybernetics, system dynamics, cellular automata, chaos theory, adaptive systems, network theory).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdgQyq3hEPo&t=35m50s
>Lessons in Game Design, lecture by Will Wright, Computer History Museum, November 20, 2003.
Understanding Kafka with Factorio (hackernoon.com)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20362179
>When I saw this title, I first thought it was about understanding the cockroach-like aliens in Factorio, but it is actually about queuing and congestion and parallel processing with conveyor belts and factories!
https://hackernoon.com/understanding-kafka-with-factorio-74e...
Von Neumann Universal Constructor (wikipedia.org)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22727228
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_universal_construc...
DonHopkins 10 months ago | on: Von Neumann Universal Constructor
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22738598
>Factorio players will recognize these tapes of construction instructions as 2D "blueprints" that construction drones use to build patterns of factories and conveyor belts, etc. In Factorio, after your drones have build a blueprint in the unpowered, unsupplied state, you can connect it to the power grid, hook up pipes to deliver fluids, and run conveyor belts in and out of it to deliver resources and products, and it will immediately starts doing its thing. Playing Factorio is uncannily like von Neumann 29 state cellular automata programming, not by coincidence. So it's a great way to get your head around cellular automata programming, gpu programming, parallel programming, queuing systems, and data flow programming in general!
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22738268
>Here's some stuff about that I posted in an earlier discussion, and transcribed from John von Neumann's book, "Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata".
>His concept of self-reproducing mutating probabilistic quantum mechanical machine evolution is quite fascinating and terrifying at the same time (or outside of time), potentially much more powerful and dangerous than mere physical nanotechnology "gray goo" and universe-infesting self replicating von Neumann probes: