Running Experiments: Discovering the Design System of an Existing World

Welcome to the heart of our world-building journey. Up until now, we’ve been setting the stage, creating the tools that will allow us to explore and understand the intricate dance of complexity and order. Now, it’s time to don your explorer’s hat and embark on a journey of discovery.

Remember, the Game of Life is not just a simple computer program - it’s a fully realized world, complete with its own laws, patterns, and behaviors. It’s a world that already exists, waiting for us to uncover its secrets. And in doing so, we’ll learn valuable lessons about how to create our own worlds.

The Power of Investigation

In traditional textbooks, you might expect us to simply tell you about the patterns and behaviors that exist in the Game of Life. But that’s not how real world-building works. Whether you’re exploring an existing world or creating one from scratch, the process is one of active discovery and experimentation.

By investigating the Game of Life ourselves, we’re not just learning about this specific system. We’re learning how to think like a world-builder. We’re developing the skills to observe, analyze, and understand complex systems - skills that will be invaluable when we turn to creating our own sci-fi telepathy world.

Decomposition: Breaking Down Complexity

As we explore the Game of Life, we’ll be using a technique that’s crucial in both world analysis and world-building: decomposition. This is the process of breaking down complex systems into smaller, more manageable parts.

In the Game of Life, we’ll be identifying recurring patterns and behaviors. These patterns are like the “components” of the Game of Life’s design system. By understanding these components and how they interact, we can begin to grasp the deeper structure of this world.

From Analysis to Creation

The exciting part is this: the same thinking processes we use to investigate and understand the Game of Life can be applied to building our own world. As we discover patterns in the Game of Life, think about how similar structures might exist in our telepathic society. How might thoughts or secrets behave like the gliders and oscillators we’ll observe?

Remember, every great fictional world, from Middle-earth to the Star Wars galaxy, is built on a foundation of consistent rules and recurring patterns - a design system, if you will. By learning to recognize these patterns in the Game of Life, you’re developing the skills to create rich, consistent design systems for your own worlds.

Your Mission

Your task in this chapter is to run experiments, observe carefully, and document your findings. Don’t worry about getting things “right” - there’s no single correct way to interpret what you see. Instead, focus on:

1. Identifying recurring patterns
2. Observing how these patterns interact
3. Thinking about what these patterns might represent in a real-world or fictional scenario

As you experiment, keep our sci-fi telepathy scenario in mind. How might the patterns you observe relate to the flow of thoughts, the formation of secrets, or the structure of a telepathic society?

Are you ready to uncover the hidden design system of the Game of Life? Let’s begin our experiments!

Discovering Patterns in the Game of Life

Let’s start our exploration by examining two simple but fascinating patterns in the Game of Life. These will serve as examples of how small initial configurations can lead to interesting behaviors.

Pattern 1: The Blinker

Let’s begin with one of the simplest oscillating patterns in the Game of Life: the Blinker.

Instructions:

1. Clear your grid by refreshing the page.
2. Find the center of your grid.
3. Click on three cells in a vertical line, one above the other.
4. Click the “Start” button to begin the simulation.

What You’ll See:

The three vertical cells will alternate between a vertical line and a horizontal line. This pattern will repeat indefinitely.

Analysis:

This simple pattern, known as a “Blinker,” demonstrates one of the fundamental behaviors in the Game of Life: oscillation. The Blinker alternates between two states, never dying out but never expanding. In the context of our telepathic world-building, we might imagine this as a simple thought or memory that continually resurfaces in someone’s mind.

Pattern 2: The Glider

Now, let’s explore a more complex pattern: the Glider.

Instructions:

1. Clear your grid again.
2. Near the top-left corner of your grid, create the following pattern:
   • Click on one cell
   • Click on the cell two spaces to the right of it
   • On the row below, click on the cell one space to the right
   • On the row below that, click on the three cells directly under the ones you’ve already activated
3. Your pattern should look like this:

   O..O
   ...O
   .OOO
   

   (where O is an active cell and . is an inactive cell)
4. Click “Start” to begin the simulation.

What You’ll See:

The pattern will appear to move diagonally across the grid, maintaining its shape but shifting position.

Analysis:

This pattern, known as a “Glider,” demonstrates another key behavior in the Game of Life: movement. Unlike the Blinker, which oscillates in place, the Glider travels across the grid. It cycles through four distinct shapes as it moves.

In our telepathic world, we might imagine Gliders as thoughts or ideas that spread through a population, maintaining their core essence but slightly changing form as they pass from mind to mind.

Your Turn: Experimentation and Discovery

Now that you’ve seen two fundamental patterns, it’s time to start your own experiments. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

1. Try combining multiple Blinkers or Gliders. How do they interact?
2. Create random patterns and observe what happens. Can you find any new stable shapes or interesting behaviors?
3. Try to create a pattern that grows indefinitely.
4. Experiment with symmetrical initial patterns. How does symmetry affect the evolution of the pattern?

As you experiment, keep these questions in mind:

• What kinds of patterns tend to stabilize?
• What kinds tend to die out quickly?
• Can you find patterns that repeat on a longer cycle than the Blinker?
• How might the behaviors you observe relate to phenomena in our telepathic world?

Remember to take notes on your observations. What patterns do you find most interesting or surprising? How might these patterns inspire elements of your sci-fi world?

Happy experimenting! The world of the Game of Life is vast and full of surprises. Who knows what fascinating patterns you might discover?

Documenting Your Discoveries: The Art of World-Building Notes

As you delve deeper into the fascinating world of the Game of Life, you’re not just playing with patterns—you’re embarking on a journey of discovery that mirrors the world-building process. To make the most of this journey, it’s crucial to document your findings meticulously. This documentation will become the foundation of your world-building efforts.

The Rigorous Method of World-Building

World-building, whether you’re exploring an existing world like the Game of Life or creating your own sci-fi telepathic universe, requires a systematic approach. Here’s the rigorous method we’ll be using throughout this course:

1. Observe: Notice a possible pattern or phenomenon in your world.
2. Record: Document what you’ve observed in detail.
3. Test: Experiment with the pattern to understand its behavior and consistency.
4. Analyze: Examine how this pattern might combine with others or decompose into smaller elements.
5. Reflect: Consider the implications of this pattern for your larger world.

This method allows us to build complex, consistent worlds from the ground up, ensuring that every element is well-understood and interconnected.

Taking Notes: Your World-Building Journal

For now, use whatever note-taking method feels most natural to you. This could be:

• A physical notebook
• A digital document
• Sketches and diagrams
• Voice recordings
• A combination of these methods

The key is to be thorough and consistent. For each pattern or phenomenon you observe in the Game of Life, try to record:

• A description of the pattern
• How to recreate it (initial configuration)
• How it behaves over time
• Any variations you’ve discovered
• Potential meanings or representations in your sci-fi telepathic world

Testing and Iteration

Once you’ve recorded a pattern, don’t stop there. Test it rigorously:

• Does it always behave the same way?
• What happens if you slightly alter the initial configuration?
• Can you combine it with other patterns? What happens when you do?

Decomposition: Breaking It Down

For each pattern you discover, ask yourself:

• Can this be broken down into smaller, simpler patterns?
• Is this pattern perhaps a combination of patterns you’ve seen before?

This process of decomposition is crucial in understanding the fundamental “building blocks” of your world.

Looking Ahead: Blogging Your Journey

In the near future, we’ll be adding a blogging functionality to your project. This will allow you to share your observations, thoughts, and analyses in a more structured format. Your blog will become a living document of your world-building process, allowing you to:

• Track the evolution of your ideas over time
• Reflect on the connections between different patterns and phenomena
• Share your discoveries with others and potentially collaborate

Start thinking about how you might translate your current notes into blog posts. What insights or observations seem most significant? What questions are you grappling with that might make for interesting discussions?

Remember: Every Detail Matters

In world-building, even the smallest detail can have far-reaching implications. That quirky little pattern you observed might be the key to understanding a fundamental law of your universe. That odd interaction between two gliders might inspire a unique aspect of telepathic communication in your sci-fi world.

So be thorough, be curious, and most importantly, have fun with your exploration! You’re not just playing a game—you’re uncovering the hidden laws of a universe, and in doing so, learning how to craft your own.

Happy note-taking, and may your world-building journal overflow with fascinating discoveries!