Thursday, November 8, 2007

Simplest Universal Computation

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
~Leonardo DaVinci



Dunno, why! but paradoxical statements have always triggered a series of chemical reaction in my brain. May be the reason I am a believer of TRIZ methodology.

Recently, Alex Smith has found a proof that a 2-state 3-colored Cellular Automata is capable of Universal Computation. What does this mean?

To my understanding, this means that even the simplest of system in nature, is capable of computing. And when I say computing, it really means computing Anything under the sun.

The question a believer of computation will ask is. With what resource requirements ?


So, lets see what can be a simplest 2-state 3-colored Cellular Automata! - Electrons, already have two spins(2-states) and they do have various Atomic Orbitals(categorize 3 colors) and then Consider Molecules ( a ready made CA )

Am I talking greek here? May be Not.