e c a u s e o f s e e d s
The affect of seed configurations can be seen when considering this pattern:
This pattern appears eight times in the charts of all rules – rules 018, 026, 082, 090, 146, 154, 210, and 218. Looking at the block diagrams for the rules, the same blocks are referenced to generate the pattern with a single seed. In the chart below, the number "1" indicates rules which are meant to turn the target cell active and "0" indicates the rules meant to be passive. Black numbers indicates the rules that are used to generate the pattern and those with red backgrounds designates those active rules which are not used or ignored.
| value | 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| block | 111 | 110 | 101 | 100 | 011 | 010 | 001 | 000 |
| 018 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 026 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 082 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 090 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 146 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 154 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 210 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 218 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
The table shows that the same five rules are used by all eight rulesets in the process of generating the pattern. As the rulesets get higher in number, more and more rules are specified, but these additional rules are ignored. Finally, at Ruleset 218, all the rules are called into play -- three active rules and five passive rules -- but only the original five rules are used to generate the pattern.
In addition to the ignored active rules, there are two passive outcomes. One is where the passive rule is part of the generation pattern and the second is a passive rule no used. This is indicated in the chart above by the blank cells.
To give a sense of the effect of more diverse seed conditions, here are the multi-seed charts for each of these eight rules.
