These animations looks at the effect of multiple seeds on the generation of a pattern.

Seed Bits

The sequence of seed bits was pulled from a file downloaded from Random.org. The breakdown of the seeds is shown below, with each row being the initial seed for a pattern.

 

Generating Patterns

The patterns were generated using Rule 018. All patterns were run full width, then cropped to a 65 x 130 cell area. At the 14th step, the length of the seed is 65 cells wide. After the 14th step, it appears there is no change in the seed where in fact the seed is changing beyond the frame of the captured image until it reaches the final width of 129 cells.

To get a sense of how the multiple-cell seeds affect the pattern, each seed condition was run using four color treatments:

• Full Color: each rule with its own color (see here for more about colors).
• Partial Color: the active blocks display as black with the rest their own color. For Rule 018, the two active blocks are 100 and 001.
• W&B with Color: the active rules are black, passive (101, 010, 000) rules are white, and the remaining unused rules are their own color (see here for the distinction).
• Unused: only the unused, along with the seed condition, display (see here for the distinction).

The legend for the menu is:

• : Colors patterns
• : Unused pattern, three times
• Single: animation of the static pages
• Flipped: flipped along the horizontal access, seed in the middle
• Rotated: rotated 180 degrees, seed in the middle
• Combo: Flipped and Rotated overlayed on each other