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Added layered CA
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‎experiments/layered_ca/README.md‎

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# Binary Coded Layered Autonoma
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An interactive cellular automaton that combines **Langton's Ant**, **multi-color substrates**, and **Conway's Game of
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Life** into a single layered system. Multiple ants traverse a colored grid, encoding their movement rules in binary,
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while a selectively-activated life simulation evolves on top of the substrate they create.
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Open `layered_automata.html` in a browser to run the simulation — no build step or dependencies required.
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## Concept
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The system layers three interacting subsystems:
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1. **Multi-Color Substrate (2–8 colors)** — a grid of colored cells that ants modify as they move.
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2. **Binary-Coded Ants** — Langton-style ants whose turn behavior (Left/Right) is encoded as a binary string indexed by
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the substrate color underneath them.
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3. **Selective Conway's Life** — a Game-of-Life layer that only evolves on cells whose substrate color is enabled by an
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*activation mask*, with positive/negative modes that create or inhibit life.
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The interplay between these layers produces highway structures, fractal boundaries, and emergent life colonies tuned to
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specific color patterns.
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## How It Works
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### Ant Movement
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Each ant reads the substrate color at its current cell and consults its binary **Ant Rule**:
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- Bit `0` → turn Left
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- Bit `1` → turn Right
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The ant then increments the cell's color (mod `numColors`), marks the cell, and steps forward. With `numColors = 4` and
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rule `0101`, this generalizes Langton's classic `LRLR` ant.
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### Life Activation Mask
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A second binary string — the **Activation Mask** — determines which substrate colors are eligible to host life. Each
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color also has an **Activation Mode**:
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- **Positive (+)**: ant presence spawns life and clears inhibition
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- **Negative (−)**: ant presence kills life and creates an *inhibition zone* that suppresses spawning (decays at ~
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10%/generation)
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### Conway's Life Layer
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Life evolves only on **marked** cells whose substrate color is mask-enabled and not inhibited. The rules are extended:
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- **Search radius** (1–5) — neighborhood size for counting live neighbors
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- **Birth** — exact neighbor count required to spawn life
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- **Survival min/max** — neighbor range that keeps a live cell alive
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- **Mutual inhibition** — neighbors only count if they share the same activation mode (+ or −) as the cell being
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evaluated
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Negative-mode cells use slightly relaxed survival/birth thresholds, making them more fragile.
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### Multi-Ant System
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Up to 8 ants can run simultaneously with configurable:
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- **Spawn modes**: `center`, `corners`, `edges`, `random`, `grid`
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- **Synchronization**:
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- `synchronized` — all ants share the same rule and mask
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- `independent` — each ant gets a randomized rule/mask
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- `offset` — each ant uses a rotated version of the base rule
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## Controls
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| Control | Description |
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|-----------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|
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| **Simulation Speed** | Delay between generations (1–2000 ms) |
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| **Number of Substrate Colors** | 2–8 colors (sets rule/mask length) |
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| **Number of Ants** | 1–8 simultaneous ants |
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| **Ant Spawn Mode** | How ants are initially placed |
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| **Ant Synchronization** | How rules are shared across ants |
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| **Ant Rule** | Per-color L/R turn instruction (clickable bits) |
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| **Life Activation Mask** | Per-color flag for life eligibility |
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| **Activation Mode** | Per-color +/− toggle (spawn vs. inhibit) |
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| **Life Search Radius** | Neighborhood radius for life rules |
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| **Birth / Survival Min / Survival Max** | Generalized Conway thresholds |
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| **Ant Activation Radius** | Radius around ants where life is seeded/inhibited |
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| **Activation Probability** | Per-cell chance of activation within radius |
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| **Grid Size** | 50×50 up to 500×500 |
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### Buttons
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- **Start / Stop** — toggle continuous simulation
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- **Step** — advance a single generation
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- **Reset** — clear grids and respawn ants
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- **Randomize All** — randomize rule, mask, and parameters
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- **Random Rule** — randomize only the ant rule
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- **Random Mask** — randomize only the activation mask & modes
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## Stats Panel
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- **Generation** — total simulation steps
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- **Ant Steps** — combined steps across all ants
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- **Marked Cells** — cells visited at least once by an ant
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- **Live Cells** — currently alive Conway cells
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- **Inhibited Cells** — cells suppressed by negative activation
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- **Active Ants** — number of ants currently running
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- **Current Mask** — the active life-activation bitstring
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## Visualization
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- **Substrate** is rendered using the configurable color palette (only marked cells are drawn).
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- **Live cells** appear as bright green squares.
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- **Inhibited cells** are tinted red.
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- **Ants** are shown as colored squares with a yellow direction indicator and an ID label (when multiple ants are
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present).
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- **Click the canvas** to enter fullscreen zoom mode; press **Esc** or click again to exit.
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## Tips for Interesting Patterns
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- Start with `numColors = 4`, rule `0101` (classic Langton's ant) to observe the famous ~10,000-step highway emergence.
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- Try rule `1100` or `0011` with 4 colors for symmetric expanding patterns.
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- Mix positive and negative activation modes to create competing life regions with shifting boundaries.
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- Use multiple ants with the `offset` synchronization to generate kaleidoscopic interference patterns.
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- Larger life search radii (3–5) combined with higher birth thresholds produce slow, organic-looking growth.
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- Use **Randomize All** repeatedly to discover novel rule combinations.
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## Files
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- `layered_automata.html` — self-contained simulation (HTML + CSS + JS)
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- `README.md` — this document
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## Implementation Notes
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- Rendering uses a single `ImageData` buffer for substrate and life cells (fast bulk pixel writes), with ants drawn via
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standard canvas calls for glow effects.
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- Grid wraps toroidally on all edges.
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- Inhibition decays stochastically (10% chance per generation) so negative regions slowly heal.
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- Neighbor counting respects activation-mode matching, producing emergent segregation between positive and negative life
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populations.

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