Langton's Ant

Langton's Ant is a 4-state two-dimensional Turing machine invented by Chris Langton in the 1986. The 'ant' starts out on a grid containing black and white cells, and then obeys the following 3 rules:

  1. If the ant is on a white square, it turns right 90 degrees and moves forward one unit
  2. If the ant is on a black square, it turns left 90 degrees and moves forward one unit
  3. When the ant leaves a square, it inverts the color

These simple rules lead to complex behavior and 3 general modes of behavior: simplistic (simple, often symmetric pattern generation), chaotic, and 'emergent': a surprising 104-step 'highway' pattern that repeats indefinitely after about 10,000 steps.

Watch Langton's Ant

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