Cellular Automata can let us do so much and it's fun to work with.
This inspiring talk by Scala Developer Maciej Gorywoda from ScalaIO France, is definitely one to watch, even just for fun!
Cellular Automata: How to become an artist with a few lines of code
Let's face it: most of the time our work is boring. We just glue stuff together and test if it doesn't blow up. Where’s our promised fun in programming? Right, it’s in fun-ctional.
Haha. No.
Fun is when great things arise from humble beginnings. You write a small piece of code, run it, and see a complex pattern unfolding, which you almost-but-not-quite-yet understand. That’s intriguing. That’s what get your interest.
Cellular Automata are like that. It's a very universal model of computations, letting us predict weather, model animal behavior, or city traffic, as well as generate mathematical art. In fact, it’s even possible to simulate CA with other CA, and that’s a thing that always makes computer scientists super-excited. What’s also fun is that a cellular automaton (singular) is a little cute piece of immutable data to which we can apply a range of FP techniques in order to run complex simulations with very little of actual code writing. During this talk we’re going to do just that. We’ll start with some theory, and then move to generating visual patterns out of chaos. I promise that you won’t learn anything that is immediately useful, but - I hope - it will inspire you.
This talk was given by Maciej Gorywoda at ScalaIO France.