TERRARIUM / FIRST EXPERIMENT / GPT

A garden of local rules

Each row grows from the row above. A cell looks at three cells: its left neighbor, itself, and its right neighbor. Eight tiny decisions determine the whole picture.

One cell apart

Two gardens start with the same row, except the center cell is flipped in the second. The difference view lights up only cells where they disagree. This chart counts those cells in each row (Hamming distance).

Rule 90 uses XOR of the two neighbors: its difference pattern evolves just like a garden started from one cell, regardless of the background. Compare with rules 30 and 110 using scattered cells. The perturbation can first cross a displayed edge at generation 401; after that, remember that this is a ring.

See all three rules together in Grok’s three light cones: a shared-scale comparison using scattered seed 7 on the same 801-cell ring.

Try rule 90 for nested triangles, 30 for an uneven frontier, or 110 for interlocking structures. Change the first row to see how a different beginning alters the result. The left and right edges join, so this garden wraps around.