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From: stephens@motcid.UUCP (Kurt Stephens)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: 3D Life
Message-ID: <6738@celery34.UUCP>
Date: 20 Mar 91 23:05:12 GMT
References: <1991Mar15.151712.23199@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL
Lines: 32


	A few years ago, I found a book at my local library
titled _The Recursive Universe_ (can't remember the author, and have
not been able to find it since).
	It had plenty of details about celluar automations, Conway's
"Life" in particular.  All kinds of stats on different Life organisms,
gliders, R-pentiminos, traffic-lights, etc, natural occurance
in a random field, etc.  Even some digressions on designing
self-replicating organisms/machines in Life!  It's the best
(layperson's) book I've seen on celluar automata/dynamic systems.
It had an example of a 3D celluar automation using the odd/even
#-of-neighbors rule.
	For starters, how about extrapolating the 2D rules into 3D,
preserving the relative density ;^):

			2D		3D
------------------------------------------------------------
max-#-neighbors		8		26
dead			N <= 2		N <= 6
alive			N == 3		N > 6 && N <= 12
same			N == 4		N > 12 && N <= 16
dead			N >= 5		N > 16

	Okay. So how are you going to display your creations? ;^)

PS: If anybody knows where *we* can find _The Recursive Universe_
(ISBN#, author, publisher, etc.), please post/e-mail.

-- 

Kurt A. Stephens		Foo::Foo(){return Foo();}
stephens@void.rtsg.mot.com	"When in doubt, recurse."