Simulated Life and Mathematical Abstraction: Emergent Behaviour, Emerging Concepts
‘Consider an infinite two-dimensional square grid.’ It does not have the same impact as the old physics joke of ‘assuming a spherical cow in a vacuum’ (1) in terms of humour (or at least, science humour), but the statement may well seem equally absurd. For a start the mind cannot truly visualise anything infinite; we only ever perceive and process a finite part of the universe at any given time. We may have a vague sense of the vastness which exists beyond our perception, whether finite or infinite, but we cannot see it. In trying to understand the original statement,…