Overview

A particular type of growth that embodies the emergence of complexity from simple rules is that of seemingly-complex patterns, such as on animal fur and skin. It’s also a fun area that a pioneer of computer science, Alan Turing, weighed in on!

AI Policy

As a reminder, you are not allowed to use genAI to summarize or produce your reading check responses. These checks are for you to engage with the material and start thinking about things before class. It’s okay if you don’t understand everything ahead of time!

Basic Learning Objectives

Before class, you should be able to:

  • Explain the high-level ideas of reaction-diffusion systems
  • Identify some of the ways that reaction-diffusion systems can capture dynamics of life

Advanced Learning Objectives

After class, you should be able to:

  • Use a reaction-diffusion system in an artificial life model for a specific goal

Reading

This is again a large amount of reading. Set your 4 hour timer and feel allowed to stop at 4 hours.Read the following:

Checks

Submit answers to the following on Moodle:

  • What is the basic idea of a reaction-diffusion system?
  • What dynamics of life do reaction-diffusion systems capture or enable exploration of?