Documentation

How worflam beta works

Understand how worflam beta computes states, processes timeline forks, and compiles custom rule graphs.

Introduction to worflam beta

worflam beta is an interactive laboratory designed to study 1D Elementary Cellular Automata (ECA) subjected to stochastic noise. Instead of discarding mutated simulations or running them as isolated studies, worflam beta treats them as parallel, branching timelines.

What is an Elementary Cellular Automata?

ECA consists of a 1D grid of binary cells (0 or 1) that evolves through discrete generations. The state of each cell in generation t+1 is determined by its neighborhood (the cell itself and its immediate left and right neighbors) at generation t.

Because there are 8 possible combinations for a 3-cell neighborhood, there are 2^8 = 256 possible local rules (ranging from Rule 0 to Rule 255).

Some rules (like Rule 30) exhibit chaotic and pseudorandom behavior, while others (like Rule 90) form fractal Sierpiński triangles, and others (like Rule 110) are Turing-complete.

The worflam beta Paradigm

worflam beta shifts the cellular automata research from a single deterministic track to a branching state space. By introducing a probability of random mutations, it allows researchers to study perturbation growth, visual envelopes of error propagation, and state consolidation in parallel tracks.

Branching timelines in 3D depth space
Branching universes in depth: Active timeline forks are separated along the depth axis in the 3D Voxel representation of the Sum visualizer.