Chapter 9 Chapter 6 Life on the Edge of Chaos

Langton said: Once I looked up and saw the Game of Life pattern zigzag away on the screen, I looked back at my computer password.At the same time, the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and it feels like someone else is in the room. On September 22, 1987, everything seemed clear.After Arthur was hired as the co-director of the economic research project of the Santa Fe Research Institute, on this bright morning, he climbed into the car with sleepy eyes and Horan, preparing to go to Los Alamos to participate in artificial life (artificial life) workshop, the five-day workshop had already started the day before.

Arthur didn't quite understand what artificial life meant.In fact, just after the economic meeting, he has not had time to recover his strength, and he still feels vague about many things.However, Horan explained that artificial life is very similar to artificial intelligence, the difference is that artificial life does not use computers to simulate the thinking process, but uses computers to simulate the basic biological evolution and life itself.Hornan says it's a lot like his genetic algorithm and classifier systems research, but with a broader scope and more ambition. hippie scientist

Artificial Life is the brainchild of Los Alamos postdoctoral researcher Christopher Langton, who had taught Hornan and Birx in Michigan.Hornan said Langton was a late bloomer, at thirty-nine, ten years older than most postdoctoral fellows, and hadn't finished his doctoral dissertation.Langton, however, was a very special student.Horan said: He has rich imagination and is very good at gathering various experiences.Langton put a lot of effort into this seminar. Artificial life is Langdon's heart and soul. He named it. In the past ten years, he has been working hard to explain the concept of artificial life. He planned this seminar and wanted to Turning artificial life into a real science, even though he didn't even know how many people would come to take part.He persuaded Los Alamos' Center for Nonlinear Research to give $15,000 to host the symposium, while the Santa Fe Institute awarded $5,000 and agreed to publish papers presented at the symposium as part of the Complex Sciences series One of the series.As far as Horan saw yesterday, Langton's performance was outstanding, Arthur must come and see for himself.

Arthur did come.When he walked into Los Alamos' venue with Horan, he quickly got two impressions.One, he underestimated his roommate so much.He said: Originally, I thought Horan was just a short, cute computer wizard; but I found that I was almost walking with Gandhi. People seemed to regard Horan as a master in this field, and they shouted: Horan!Horan!They would stop him in the hallway and ask him: what do you think about this problem?What's your take on that?Did you receive the paper I sent you? He Nan faced everything calmly, but what he couldn't escape was that He Nan became a celebrity!It was embarrassing to him, but there was nothing he could do.Over the past twenty-five years, he has had one or two protégés earn their Ph.Ds every year, so now he has many disciples spreading his ideas everywhere.At the same time, the world began to understand his ideas, neural networks became prominent again, and learning became the hottest topic in mainstream artificial intelligence.After the first International Academic Conference on Genetic Algorithms was held in 1985, there are still many conferences under planning.The opening line of everyone's speech seems to be: Horan's statement is so and so, here is my version.

Arthur's second impression was that artificial life was strange.He never had a chance to meet Langdon.Langton is tall and thin, with thick brown hair and a wrinkled face, resembling a young and kind Walter Matthau (Walter Matthau, a famous American character actor).Langston was always in a hurry, either photocopying things, fixing things, or just worrying and frantically trying to get everything done at the same time. So, Arthur spent a lot of time visiting the computer displays in the hallway.What he sees are all masterpieces: computer-animated flocks of birds flying on the screen, lifelike plants growing and thriving before his eyes, fractal-like creatures, undulating and shining various forms, it is really dazzling .But what does this mean?

Also, the speeches Arthur heard were a strange mixture of wild imagination and down-to-earth empiricism, and it seemed that no one knew what was going to come out of the speaker's mouth until he took the stage.Many people in the venue wore ponytails and jeans, and a woman gave a speech barefoot.The word emerges frequently, and there is an exuberant energy and comradely intimacy in the air, an atmosphere of breaking down barriers and liberating new ideas, and an atmosphere of freedom that is unpredictable and completely open.In strange, intellectual ways, the Artificial Life Symposium presents a counterculture that resembles the American counterculture movement during the Vietnam War.

self-taught computer geek Langdon remembers the moment when the artificial life was salivating.It was around the end of 1971 or the beginning of 1972. Anyway, it was winter, and he was like a standard computer freak. He was alone on the sixth floor of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston at three o'clock in the morning, sitting in a psychological In front of the PDP︱9 computer of the system, correct the coding error. He likes this way of working.We don't need to go to work at fixed hours.Frank Ervin who runs the place is a very knowledgeable and very creative guy.Basically, he hired a bunch of bright young kids to help him code and then let it go.So during the day those conformist people use the computer to do some really dull work, and we used to come in at four or five in the evening and stay until three or four in the morning, during which time we can play computer as much as we want.

Indeed, to Langton, programming was the most fun game in the world.He never deliberately chose the path of programming, but just joined Irwin's group inadvertently two years ago.At the time, he had just dropped out of college and had come to the general hospital to fulfill his alternative service obligations as a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War.Apart from taking a few computer courses in middle school, his programming skills were entirely self-taught.However, once he started working with computers, he became addicted to them and continued to stay even after the service period expired.

He said: Computers are awesome.I'm a mechanical engineer at heart, I love building things, and I love seeing what I make actually work.As for the things he designed on the PDP︱9 computer, he said: You must match every structure of the hardware, and your program must consider the real performance of the machine. But he also liked the weird abstraction of computers.The best example is the first case he took, allowing experimental psychologists to operate on a PDP︱9 computer.After years of recording data on old and horribly slow PDP︱8 computers, experimental psychologists finally got fed up.The problem was, they had written all kinds of special programs for the old computers that couldn't be run on the new PDP|9s, and no one wanted to do it all over again, redesign everything.So Langton's task was to design a program that tricked the old program into thinking it was still running on the old machine.In fact, he is tantamount to recreating a virtual machine of the old computer in the new computer.

Langton said: I had never taken a formal computer course, so actually creating a virtual machine was my first opportunity to understand the idea of ​​virtuality.I love this concept very much, that is to say, if you abstract the laws of a machine's operation to form a program, then you have mastered the most important part of the machine, and the hardware is left far behind. amazing game of life All in all, on that particular night, he was at the hospital fixing errors in coding.Later, he knew that he would not run any programs for the time being, so he put the software of the game of life into the computer.

This is his favorite computer game.I got this software program from Bill Gosper's group, they were playing the Game of Life at MIT, and we started playing it.Langton quickly became addicted to playing.The Game of Life was invented by the British mathematician John Conway the year before. This game is not really for you to play, but for you to observe the evolution process of the miniature universe on the computer screen.At the beginning, the image of this small universe will appear on the computer screen: a flat coordinate grid covered with living black squares and dead white squares.The initial pattern is your choice, but once you start playing, the blocks live or die according to a few simple rules.In each generation, each block will first look around at its neighbors, and if there are already too many living blocks around, then in the next generation, the block will die from overcrowding.If there are few living blocks nearby, the block will also die of loneliness.However, if the number of neighbors is just right, there are exactly two or three living squares, then in the next generation, the central square will be alive and either continue to survive or be reborn after death. The whole game is that simple, the rules are nothing more than comic book biology.But the magic of the Game of Life is that when you program these few simple rules into a computer program, they actually seem to bring the computer screen to life.Compared with today's computers, the Game of Life moves slowly and clumsily, as if replayed in slow motion on a VCR.Watch closely, however, and the screen comes alive with action, much like the microbes you see in a drop of pond water through a microscope.You can start by having living blocks scattered randomly across the screen, and watch them organize themselves into a variety of coherent structures.Some will roll, some will oscillate back and forth like the breath of a beast, you can also find a group of glider living cells gliding across the screen at a fixed speed, and the glider gun will launch a new glider steadily, and other structures will move quietly. The glider eats them one by one.If you're lucky, you might even find a Cheshire Cat (the grinning cat in Alice in Wonderland) slowly disappearing without a trace, leaving only smiles and footprints.Every time the picture appears is different, no one has seen all possible patterns."The first pattern I saw was a large, stable, diamond-shaped structure," Langton said.But then you can bring in gliders, and the whole picture of crystal perfection is broken, and the structure fades away, as if the gliders were an infection from outside. So that night, Langton said, the computer was busy running all kinds of patterns, and he was busy fixing coding errors.He said: Once I looked up and saw the pattern of the Game of Life winding and disappearing on the screen, I looked back at my computer password.At the same time, the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and it feels like someone else is in the room. Langdon looked around, expecting to see other programmers stalking behind him.It's a cramped room filled with all sorts of electronic equipment, cardboard boxes, and discarded items.This is the typical PC gamer's paradise.But no, no one was standing behind him, no one was hiding in the room, he was completely alone. Langdon looked back at the computer screen again.I understood that the game of life must be at play, that the things on the screen were alive.I can't explain it in words, but since then, I can no longer tell the difference between hardware and process.I understand that on a deeper level, what's possible on the computer isn't that different from what's possible in my own body, that the physical process is the same process that's happening on the screen. I still remember that late at night, I stared out the window, and the computer was still busy.It's a clear, cold night with twinkling stars in the sky and you can see the Science Museum and cars speeding by across the Charles River in Cambridge.I think about the form of activity, everything that happens there.The city lay there, alive, as if in the game of life.Although the shape is much more complicated, it is basically the same shape. follow the feeling Looking back on it 20 years later, Langton said that night's apocalyptic revelation changed his life forever.But it was just a feeling at the time.There was a flash of inspiration, and then disappeared without a trace.It's as if a storm, hurricane, or big wave hits suddenly, changes the landscape, and then everything returns to calm.The real mental images are fleeting, but give me a special feeling about things later.Anything that reminds me of this form of activity feels right, so I've tried to follow that intuition my whole life.Of course, my intuition often leads me to a place and then disappears, leaving me wondering what to do next. In fact, Langton in 1971 had no way of knowing what his feelings meant, and he was still a long way from becoming a scholar.His so-called follow the feeling, just roaming in the library or bookstore, looking for some articles related to virtual machines or emergence, collective form to read, and occasionally taking some courses at Harvard University and Boston University.But basically, he was content to stay the course, when there were too many other things in his life to do.He loves playing the guitar, and originally planned to form a folk song band with his friends, but failed for some reason.He still puts a lot of effort into resisting the draft and opposing the Vietnam War.For him, the whole counterculture scene around Cambridge and Boston fascinated him.Langston hadn't been happier in a long time. He said: Secondary school was a disaster for me.In 1962, when Langton was fourteen years old, he went from a small elementary school in his hometown of Lincoln (Linclon) to Lincoln-Surbury Middle School.I feel like I'm in jail every day.This is an industrial high school, and unless you behave particularly well, every child is strictly disciplined as a bad boy.And I just didn't fit in with the whole system, I had long hair, I played guitar, I listened to folk songs.I'm a hippie, and without a hippie around, I'm completely alone. His parents mystery novelist Jane.Langton (Jane Langton) and physicist William.Langton (William Langton) was a radical from the early days of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War.In middle school, my parents would occasionally take me into town to attend equality sit-ins or to speak at schools.We would also take a bus to Washington to protest this or that, and occasionally I would be arrested by the police as a demonstrator. Finally, Langton graduated in 1966.It was the beginning of the hippie era, so that summer, my friend and I hopped on a bus to go to California, because California was more progressive in this regard.We went straight to Haight︱Ashbury to hear Jamis Joplin and the Jefferson Airplane choir.What a great summer vacation. wild hippie life Unfortunately, in the fall, he had to report to Rockford College in Illinois.He himself didn't want to go to college, and his average middle school grades were only about C grades. Harvard, MIT and other prestigious schools all rejected his application firmly.However, his parents insisted that he must go to college, and Rockford University had just been restructured from a women's college to a general comprehensive university and was actively recruiting students. To Langton, Rockford's new campus in the cornfields was like a loose-guard farm prison.Maybe there is barbed wire on it.Because the school recruited too many students, among the 500 students in the school that year, there were actually ten hippies from the east coast.When we arrived at the school, we looked around and saw that we were all conservative peasant boys and extreme right-wingers.It's the time of the East Coast, but Illinois seems to be stuck in the McCarthy era.In Illinois in 1966, hippies were dead.When the school registrar saw me, he assigned me to the girls' gym.We were walking into a donut shop one time, and some state troopers came up behind us, and one of them said, Some of you guys have really ugly girlfriends.Every restaurant kicked us out because we had long hair and no one wanted to greet us.And the school quickly suspected that we had something to do with drugs. Apparently the only thing left to do was to go north.Langton and his gaggle of friends began hitchhiking all the way to the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, staying for weeks at a time.Madison is my place, where you can see the whole social and cultural changes in the 1960s, but Rockfort is calm, nothing happened.There was a lot of anti-war activity in Madison, and a lot of hippies started trying drugs, and I was no exception.I had an electric guitar, and a friend who was into Appalachian folk music, we jammed a lot.There was a lot going on there, but none of it had anything to do with our college goals. As a result, before the start of the sophomore year, Langton was detained for inspection because of poor grades.Before the end of the first semester of his sophomore year, the school informed Langton to leave, and Langton also told the school that he was not going to study. I want to stay in Madison, but I have no job and no means of living.I just went back to Boston and became more politically zealous and more anti-war.Langton said.Since he could no longer be suspended as a student, he applied for a deferment of conscientious objectors.After working hard for a period of time, he was finally recognized by the conscription committee.I then performed substitute services at Massachusetts General Hospital starting in 1968. find life purpose There, of course, Langton believed he had finally found his place, and he was happy to be a programmer forever.It was a great job, I learned a lot, had a great time with my colleagues, and had no reason to leave.But in 1972, his supervisor Irving applied to UCLA and took all the experiments with him.Dazed, Langton hooked up with another group of psychologists studying the social interactions of Southeast Asian bob-tailed macaques.So, before Thanksgiving in 1972, Langton was already at the Caribbean Primate Research Center in the jungle, forty miles outside San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. Turns out, it wasn't much of a great job.Still, Langton loved monkeys, spending eight to 10 hours a day in the lab monitoring macaque performance, and he became fascinated by macaque culture and the way it was passed down from generation to generation.The problem is, primate research center workers are too much like their subjects.One of the experiments was trying to understand how the social system of macaques responds to stress, so they injected a class of macaques with drugs and then saw how the whole system reacted when the macaque wasn't doing what it was supposed to be doing.For example, the monkey king is supposed to be powerful in all directions, resolve disputes, pair up with all female monkeys, and chase other monkeys.So, when the Monkey King is a little bit out of order, the monkey group will split into different factions.Faction leaders may treat the Monkey King with great respect, but occasionally attack it, then quickly retreat.You can see that on the one hand, they support the Monkey King, but on the other hand they have to take the responsibility of leading, but the Monkey King is still in place, so there is a funny tension. Langton said: At the time, the director of the research center was an out-and-out alcoholic.He can start pouring yellow soup early in the morning and drink a gallon of wine that day.He can't play the role of a supervisor at all, but he doesn't authorize other staff, and his subordinates still have to do things.So they argued all day long: You should ask me about this first!I should have taken my monkey observation sheet and lifted the roof off the research center and would have seen exactly the same situation as the macaque society.Sure enough, the staff split into factions, sparking a revolution.And the faction I participated in failed miserably, they asked me to leave, and I was already preparing to leave. After a year in Puerto Rico, Langdon was once again at a loss.He understood that it was time to seriously think about the problems of life.He said: I can't just float around, live day by day, without long-term goals in life.But what is his purpose in life?He was curious, maybe what that mysterious feeling was trying to tell him, and while he was in Puerto Rico, he had been thinking about it all the time, and he was starting to think maybe he had found his way: cosmology and astrophysics. He said: "I didn't have access to a computer there, so I didn't do any computer-related work, but I read a lot.The origin of the universe, the structure of the universe, the nature of time all seem to feel right.So, when things got worse, I went back to Boston and started taking math and astronomy classes in Boston. Of course, he had taken many math courses before, but Langton thought it would be a good idea to start from scratch.I didn't pay enough attention in the past. I didn't go to school because I wanted to go to school, but because everyone else went to school.You were squeezed out of high school toothpaste and put on a college toothbrush, so you went to college.Not a regular student, he can only take a few classes at a time, and he juggles weird jobs.However, he devoted himself to class and performed well.Finally, a teacher who became friends with him said: If you really want to study astronomy, you should go to the University of Arizona.He said that Boston University is good in all aspects, but Arizona is one of the world's major astronomy cities. The Tucson campus is located in the middle of the Sonora Desert, where you can see the clearest and most The dryest, darkest sky, and the mushroom-like telescope domes that sprung up on the mountaintops.The Kitt Peak National Observatory is forty miles away and has headquarters on the university campus.The University of Arizona is exactly where he should be. That sounded plausible, so Langton applied to the University of Arizona for the fall class of 1975. down from the sky Langton said he learned to dive while working in the Caribbean.He loves swimming in the third dimension among corals and schools of fish, and diving is his fascination.But once he got back to Boston, he discovered that diving in the frigid, brown waters of New England was nothing like that.So, he switched to hang gliding and was hooked on day one.Flying across the world and traveling in the sky, this is the acme of three-dimensional space.He became a fan of hang gliding, not only bought a hang glider himself, but also spent every spare minute in the sky. That's why, at the beginning of the summer of 1975, Langton drove to Tucson with a pair of fellow hang-gliders.Their plan is to cross the United States at the slowest speed in the next few months, and stop to hang glider when they see suitable mountains on the way.So they headed up the Appalachians all the way to Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. Grandfather Mountain is the highest peak of the Blue Ridge (Blue Ridvge), with a magnificent view. It is a private tourist resort and a great place to play hang gliding.Langton said: "When the wind is right, you can swim in the sky for hours!Indeed, the landlord found that when these lunatics defied gravity and flew into the sky, they attracted many tourists to watch, and he also sold a lot of hamburgers and hot dogs because of this.He decided to pay them twenty-five dollars a day to stay and perform all summer long. Langton said: We are unlikely to find a better location.So, they agreed.They succeeded in attracting a large number of tourists, and the landowner had a strong interest in hang gliding, and planned to hold a national hang gliding championship at Grandfather Mountain at the end of summer.Because of the convenient location, Langton also actively practiced and prepared to participate in the competition. The accident happened on August 5th.At that time, his friend had already left, and he also planned to leave the next day, first register in Tucson, and then return to Grandfather Mountain to participate in the hang gliding championship before the class started.However, he wanted to practice a few more spot-downs before setting off. So, he did the last practice of the day.The fixed-point landing arrangement is very tricky. The target is hidden in a small open space among the trees. If you want to land successfully, you can only descend from a very high place with a near-stall rotation.However, the wind that day was timid and uncooperative, and it seemed impossible to fly at all.Langton had already canceled four practice descents, frustrated.This is the last chance to practice before the game. Langton said: "I still remember thinking to myself: Damn, I'm going to give it a try anyway, fuck it!Then I was fifty feet high, straight down in still air.I was going so slow, I was stalling at the wrong height, and I remember thinking: Oh!Damn it!I knew I was going to fall, and I was going to fall badly.I thought: God, I'm going to break a leg.In desperation, he tried to regain control of the speed and adjust the hang glider to dive form, but to no avail.Then, as he had learned in the past, he stretched his legs to absorb some of the impact.You know your leg will break, but you can't pull it back because if you land on your butt, you'll break your back.I don't remember how I fell to the ground, and my memory is fragmented after that, but I do remember lying there and knowing I was hurt so badly that I should just lie still.My friend ran over, and the people on the top of the mountain also ran down when they heard the news. The landlord was taking pictures, and someone was calling an ambulance with a walkie-talkie.After a long time, the medical staff appeared, and they asked: Where do you feel the most pain?I said: My whole body hurts.I remember they put me on the stretcher after they muttered to each other for a while. observe self-rebuild An ambulance took Langton to Cannon Memorial Hospital in Banner Elk, the nearest hospital down the hill.As he lay semi-conscious in the intensive care unit, he recalled the nurse telling him: You broke your leg and you're going to be here for a few weeks.Then, we'll release you from the hospital, and you'll be running around again in no time. Langton said: "I was on morphine and was out of my mind, so I took her word for it. In fact, Langdon was very embarrassed.His helmet saved his cranium, while his legs distributed the force of the landing, thus saving his back and pelvis.But he broke thirty-five bones, both hands and legs, and his right arm was almost thrown out.He had several broken ribs, a damaged lung, and the force of the impact sent his knee into his face, nearly shattering his knee, jaw, and others.Langton said: "Basically, my face was like a paste.His cheekbones and eye sockets were cracked, unable to support the pull of the eye muscles.There was even something wrong with his head, and the broken face made him ache inside.They put my bones together and inflated my lungs in the emergency room, but after the anesthesia wore off, I was in a coma for a day and they were all worried that I would become a vegetative state. Although he finally woke up, it was a long time before he regained his coordination.Watching myself regain my sanity is a strange experience.I was like a passive observer hiding in the background, and a lot of things were going on in my head, but none of them were related to my conscious mind.It's a lot like virtual machines, or the Game of Life.I could see these disconnected forms organizing themselves and somehow becoming one with me.I don't know how to describe this feeling in an objective, demonstrable way, and it's probably a drug-induced hallucination, but it's like when you mess up an ant colony and watch it come back to reorganize, Re-establish group order. So, my mind rebuilt itself in the same remarkable way.However, mentally, I still feel that something is not the same as it used to be, that something is missing, although I cannot say exactly what is missing.I could feel the operating system in my body come back to function, and I'd wake up one morning and I'd be shocked, shake my head, and suddenly it would be another level.I'd think: My God, I'm back!Then, it became clear to me that I hadn't really recovered.One day later, I may experience the same feeling again, have I recovered?To this day, I don't really know.A few years ago, I experienced this condition again, so, who knows?When you're at this level, you don't know what the higher levels are like. mend broken face It was the worst accident that had ever happened to Banerac. In the past, the hospital dealt mostly with gunshot wounds and skiing accidents.To make matters worse, he was bruised all over his body and couldn't be moved.But Langton was lucky. The president of Cannon Memorial, Dr. Lawson Tate, was a nationally renowned plastic surgeon who had worked at several major medical schools before returning to Banerac.He spent the next few months repairing Langdon's shattered facial bones and knees, as well as splicing his right shoulder so the nerve cord could grow back into his paralyzed right arm.Around Christmas 1975, after Dr. Tate performed fourteen surgeries on him, Langdon finally flew to Concord, Massachusetts, where he was at Emerson Hospital, near his parents. (Emerson Hospital) recuperation.The doctors there were amazed that one person could withstand so many different surgeries. Langdon finally recovered in Concord and began to slowly learn how to use his body.He said: I was lying in bed for six months, most of the time was on a brace, I couldn't move, my weight dropped from 180 pounds to 110 pounds, and because I didn't do physical rehabilitation, all kinds of things happened .You lose all the muscle, the muscle just goes away.All the ligaments and tendons tense, and you become very stiff, because if the joint is not constantly moved, it fills up with a substance that secretly displaces the tired cartilage until your joint has no room to move anymore. Langton said: "So I looked like a gaunt anorexic.Of course, because my jaw is held in place by the wire, a lot of the musculature that controls it is atrophied.It took me a long time to manage to reopen my mouth an inch or so.Eating was difficult, chewing was difficult, and as for speaking, I almost gnashed my teeth.I have a funny face, with sunken cheekbones instead of raised cheekbones, giving it a ghostly look.My eyes still look weird to this day. Physiotherapists at Emerson Hospital trained Langton to get up and walk, and worked to restore function to his right arm.Lying flat on the bed and playing the guitar helped a lot in my recovery, I forced myself to play the guitar, I don't care about other things, but I definitely don't want to be able to play the guitar forever. Meanwhile, Langton read every science book he could get his hands on.In Benaike, once his eyes were back to normal, I asked friends to send me books, which came in boxes on trucks, and I devoured them.Some are about cosmology, I also read math books and solve problems, and I also spend a lot of time reading the history of the development of new ideas and biology in general.I read The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas, and I also read a lot of books on philosophy of science and philosophy of evolution.Langton said.He couldn't really concentrate, and the hospital put him on stimulants and painkillers while his mind was still reorganizing.But, like a sponge, I think a lot about biology, physics, cosmology, and how those ideas evolve over time.And then there's my intuition, and during this period, I've been following my intuition, but not in any particular direction.Cosmology and astronomy feel good, but basically, I know nothing about them, and I'm still watching because I'm not sure what I'm going to learn. artificial life By the time Langton finally arrived at the University of Arizona in Tucson in the fall of 1976, he was limping around with a cane, despite still needing surgery on his knee and right shoulder.However, he was a twenty-eight-year-old sophomore, limp and pale, and he felt weird, as if he had just escaped from circus juggling class. He said: "My look is really weird, because there are many fraternities and sororities at the University of Arizona, and many people are beautiful.At the same time, my mental state is very inattentive and often absent-minded.In conversations, I often digress and then suddenly realize that I have no idea what everyone is talking about.I can only focus for a short time.So I feel that I am a freak, both psychologically and physically. On the other hand, the University of Arizona has a great advantage in that it has an excellent university hospital and top-notch physical therapy and sports medicine.I did benefit a lot from it.They insist that you have to keep working hard and keep improving.在那裏我明白我必須跨越門檻，改變心態，接受我目前的樣子，然後開始努力。不要再自怨自艾，而是要為進步而感到高興。所以，我決心忍受我自己的駝鳥心態以及怪異的感覺，儘管我會抓不到重點，我在課堂上仍然要回答問題。我必須奮戰到底。 不幸的是，儘管他的身心都在逐漸康復，蘭頓發現亞利桑那大學有個缺點：天文學。他從來沒有想過要事先問問看，這個世界天文學重鎮是否也讓大學生主修天文學。答案是否定的。這所大學的確有一流的天文學博士課程，但是大學生必須先主修物理，然後到研究所才能轉念天文學。唯一的問題是，就蘭頓所見，亞利桑納的物理系糟糕透頂。物理系完全是一片混亂，教授全是外國人，實驗室操作手冊老舊不堪，設備不合用，沒有人知道我們到底在學什麼。 這完全不是蘭頓想研究的科學。一個學期後，他放棄了物理，也放棄了天文學，他那模糊的直覺引領他走到了死胡同。（蘭頓不是唯一對這學校的物理系起反感的人，一九八六年，亞利桑那大學特地從羅沙拉摩斯聘請了一位新的系主任來改造物理系，這個人正是卡魯塞斯。） 好消息是蘭頓毫無悔意。亞利桑那的哲學系很出色，蘭頓對哲學有興趣是因為他對於觀念發展的歷史著迷。亞利桑那的人類學系也很不錯，而人類學之所以吸引他，是因為他在波多黎各作實驗時，很喜歡那些獼猴。第一學期，他修這兩門學科是為了達到通識教育的要求，他一離開物理系，就變成雙主修哲學與人類學。 這是個奇怪的組合，但是蘭頓覺得這兩門學問配合得天衣無縫。那天他一走進薩爾門（Wesley Salmon）所開的科學哲學課堂上，就有這種感覺。蘭頓說：薩爾門有一些很好的觀點，他曾經是維也納學派哲學家萊肯巴哈（Hans Reichenbach）的門生，而那些傢伙都在作些非常技術性的研究，例如時間與空間的哲學、量子力學等。我很快就明白，我有興趣的不是當前的宇宙觀，而是我們的世界觀如何隨時間演變。我真正有興趣的是觀念發展的歷史，而宇宙學只不過剛好是最容易研究觀念發展史的領域。他很快就請薩爾門擔任他的指導教授。 同時，蘭頓在人類學系學到了各式各樣的人類習俗和信仰、文明的興衰，以及人類的起源。他在人類學系的指導教授齊古拉（Stephen Zegura）不只是位出色的講師，同時對演化理論也有精闢的見解。 所以，從各方面來看，蘭頓說：我都沉浸在資訊演化的觀念中，這很快就變成我的主要興趣，感覺很對。他說，他覺得這次很接近他真正想做的事了。 重新組合散落的片段 蘭頓最喜歡的漫畫是賴森（Gary Larson）的在遠方（The Far Side）系列，有一幅漫畫描繪一名裝備齊全的登山者正準備下去地面一個巨大的洞中，當一位記者拿著麥克風請他說話時，他宣布：因為洞根本不在這裏！ 蘭頓笑著說：這正是我的感覺。他愈鑽研人類學，愈覺得這門學問有很大的漏洞。人類學基本上一分為二。一方面是生物演化清晰的化石紀錄，再加上達爾文理論的解析，理論包括了如何把資訊譯成密碼，以及資訊如何代代相傳。另一方面則是考古學家所發現的化石紀錄。然而文化人類學家不會思考、討論，甚至聽你談論如何解析這些紀錄的理論，他們似乎刻意避免這方面的研究。 蘭頓的印象是，文化的演化理論還帶著十九世紀社會達爾文主義的烙印，當時人們以適者生存來為戰爭和社會不平等辯護。蘭頓了解問題所在，畢竟他大半輩子都在抗議戰爭和不平等，他可沒有辦法接受這個漏洞。如果你可以建立一個真正的文化演化理論，那麼也許就能夠了解文化如何影響社會，而進一步對戰爭和社會不公平有所行動。 現在有個值得追求的目標。最重要的是這件事感覺對了。蘭頓明白，這不只是文化演化的問題，而是生物演化、知識演化、文化演化等觀念跨越時空，整合在一起。在最深的層次，這些都只是同一件事的不同層面。更重要的是，這就像生命遊戲，或是像他自己的心智一般，仍然不斷從散落的片段中重新組合。這其中蘊藏著統一性、元素組合在一起、結構演化，及複雜系統獲得生長及生存的能力。如果他能學會以正確的方式觀察這種統一性，如果他能把其中運作的抽象法則變成正確的電腦程式，那麼他就能掌握到演化的要義。 蘭頓說：這時候，所有的事情開始拼出一幅完整的圖像。儘管他仍然說不清楚他的想法。但是，這是我一直在思考的事情。 到處吃閉門羹 一九七八年春天，蘭頓在二十六頁的論文信仰的演化（The Evolution of Belief）中，表達他的想法。他的基本論點是，生物和文化演化其實是一體之兩面，文化的基因是信仰，記錄在文化的DNA語言上。現在回頭看，他覺得那篇論文是個天真的嘗試，但這是他的宣言，也是他研讀自己設計的跨學門博士學位的提案；更重要的是，這篇論文說服了他的指導教授齊古拉。他真是個好人，好老師。只有他真正了解我在說什麼，他的態度是：就這麼辨吧！但是齊古拉也警告他，如果要攻讀特別的博士學位，蘭頓必須在其他系也找到指導教授，齊古拉沒有辦法在物理、生物學及電腦科學各方面都指導他。 所以，大四那年，蘭頓忙著四處接頭。這時候，我開始稱它人工生命，類似於人工智慧。我希望為它取個言簡意賅的名稱，讓大家約略有一點概念。大多數人或多或少都知道人工智慧，而人工生命想要掌握演化精義，正如人工智慧試圖捕捉到神經心理學的精義一樣。我不是要維妙維肖的模擬爬蟲的演化過程，而是要在電腦中捕捉到演化的抽象模型，並且利用模型來作實驗。所以，這個名稱至少打開了一扇窗。 不幸的是，通常他一開口，就吃了閉門羹。他說：我和電腦系的教授談過，沒有人有絲毫頭緒。他們只研究數據結構、電腦語言等，他們甚至連人工智慧都沒有研究，所以沒有人能好好聽我講。他們都點點頭，然後說：這和電腦一點關係也沒有。 蘭頓在生物學系和物理學系也同樣遭到冷眼。他說：他們看我的眼神就好像我是個狂想之徒，真是令人沮喪，尤其是在意外發生之後，我已經對自己不太有把握。客觀的來看，蘭頓已經大有進步，他能夠專心，他的身體很強壯，一次能跑五英里。但是，他仍然覺得自己很奇怪，心理不健全。因為神經系統的混亂，我對自己的想法再也沒有把握，所以這次也沒有什麼信心，這對讓別人了解我的想法，沒有絲毫幫助。 然而，他繼續奮戰。他說：我覺得這是我想做的事，這和我在出事之前，頭腦還很清楚的時候，經常在思考的東西有關聯。當時我對非線性動力學一無所知，但是我對於突現的特性、很多片段之間的互動、群體行為等有很強烈的直覺。 不幸的是，直覺並不能解決問題。儘管他努力不懈，到了大四那年接近尾聲時，蘭頓不得不承認他遇到了瓶頸。齊古拉很支持他，但是齊古拉仍然沒有辦法一個人指導他，他必須另起爐灶。 掌控自己的命運 就在這混沌不明的時刻，蘭頓決定完成終身大事，婚期定在一九七九年十二月二十二日。他的妻子賽居拉（Elvira Segura）心直口快，脾氣不太好。她拿了個圖書管理碩士的學位，與蘭頓在齊古拉的人類學課堂上結識。我們很自然的成為好友，一切就這麼發展下去，蘭頓說。一九八○年五月蘭頓畢業後，夫妻倆就搬到校區外的一間小屋去。蘭頓拿了兩個大學學位，因為他修了太多學分，校方堅持他必須成為雙主修。 暫時一切都穩定下來。賽居拉在大學圖書館有一份很不錯的工作，蘭頓則兼做兩份以鐘點計酬的工作。首先，他在一家裝潢公司當木匠，他認為這是種很好的運動，同時有心理治療的功能；另外，他還在一家專門製造彩色玻璃的小工廠當助理。 事實上，依他某部分的性格來說，他大可就這麼快快樂樂的過下去。但蘭頓知道，他必須認真的做個決定，而且愈快愈好。在齊古拉的鼓勵下，他已經申請好進入人類學研究所，可是，所方可沒有答應讓他修跨學門、與人工生命有關的博士學位。換句話說，他得浪費很多時間在他不喜歡或必修的科目上。所以問題是，他是不是應該乾脆不再想研究什麼人工生命了，不然怎麼辨？ 絕不可能。到了這步田地，我已經好像一個看過神靈顯聖的信徒一樣，他說：從此我要掌控自己的命運。我確實知道自己想繼續走下去，在這領域修個博士學位，我只不過不知道究竟該怎麼個走法而已。 他決定，首先得弄一台電腦來釐清這些想法，然後才有辦法和別人討論人工生命，有東西展示給別人看。於是，他向彩色玻璃工廠的老闆借錢買了部蘋果二號電腦，在家裏架設起來，另外還買了部小小的彩色電視機充當電腦螢幕。 蘭頓說：通常我都在晚上工作，因為白天都在上班。不知怎的，到了晚上，我的腦子總是最活躍清醒，最適合自由自在的創意思考。有時候我會醒過來，心裏隱隱約約有個想法，便立即爬起來把它弄明白。 他的妻子對此不太滿意，常常從臥室大喊：繼續睡覺好嗎？明天你會累壞了。如今回顧這段日子，賽居拉明白蘭頓當初熬夜完全不是白費力氣，但在當時，她實在痛恨丈夫把家當作辦公室。對她而言，家就是家，是家人生活的地方，也是逃避外面世界的地方。但另一方面，她也知道這是蘭頓必須完成的大業。 自我複製 蘭頓的第一個人工生命研究十分簡單：有機體（organism）。事實上他所謂的有機體，只不過是一個基因的表格，表格上列出了有機體的基因型，例如壽命有多長？多久生出下一代？有機體是什麼顏色？然後就是一些環境因素，例如小鳥經過，揀起從背景中突出的東西。所以，這些生物在演化，因為當他們繁衍後代的時候，會有發生突變的可能性。 剛開始跑程式的時候，蘭頓覺得很滿意，你可以看到有機體的確在演化，但是很快他就從迷夢中醒了過來。都是線性的變化！他說，有機體表現的都是顯而易見的行為，完全沒有超出他已經了解的範疇。他說：這些不是真正的有機體，這個基因表格是由一個外在的上帝電腦程式所操控，繁殖就這麼神奇的發生了。我要的是更自成一體的系統，在其中繁衍後代的過程會自然發生，而且成為基因型的一部分。 但究竟要如何著手，蘭頓一片茫然，所以他決定到亞利桑那大學圖書館，以電腦查詢過去的文獻。他試著用關鍵字自我複製來查詢。 他說：我得到數不清的資料！立刻跳入眼簾中的是由馮諾曼著作，勃克斯編輯的自我複製的自動機理論（The Tbeory of Self︱Reproduction Automata）。接著又是另一本：細胞自動機論文集（Essays on Cellular Automata），也是由勃克斯編輯。還有考德（Ted Codd）所著的細胞自動機（Celluiar Automata），考德也就是發明關聯性資料庫的那傢伙。 Wow!now it's right.當我發現這一大堆資料時，我說：嘿，也許我瘋了，不過至少這些人和我一樣瘋狂！蘭頓說。他借了馮諾曼、勃克斯和考德的書，以及其他所有能在圖書館找到的相關書籍，然後一股腦的把這些資料都吞了下去。沒錯，都在這兒！演化、生命遊戲、自我集合、突現的繁殖、所有的相關理論。 他發現早在一九四○年代，馮諾曼和高士譚、勃克斯合作設計了可儲存程式的數位電腦之後，馮諾曼就對自我複製發生興趣。當時，可儲存程式的電腦在許多人眼中還很新鮮，數學家和邏輯學家都渴望了解這種電腦能做什麼，又不能做什麼。這個問題也就不可避免的蹦出來了：能儲存程式的機器能不能自我複製？ 馮諾曼會毫不遲疑的說能，至少原則上可行。畢竟動植物已經自我複製了幾十億年，而在生化的層次，動植物也只不過是機器而已，和星球遵循著相同的自然法則。但是，單單這個事實幫助不大，生物的自我複製極其複雜，牽涉到遺傳、性行為、精子和卵子的結合、細胞分化及胚胎發展等種種學問，更遑論有關蛋白質和DNA的精密分子化學，在一九四○年代還是一片有待開墾的荒地。一般的機器顯然沒有這麼多花樣。所以在馮諾曼回答機器自我複製的問題前，他必須先把複製的流程簡化到抽象邏輯的根本形式。事實上，就像多年後程式設計師著手架構虛擬機器時一樣，馮諾曼必須先找到關於自我複製最重要的事情。 馮諾曼與細胞自動機 為了要對這個問題有一些感覺，馮諾曼開始進行一個想像實驗。他想像有部機器漂浮在池塘的水面上，許多零件四處浮散。再想像這部機器是個宇宙的建造者：向它描繪任何一種機器，它都能在池塘各處拾取適當的零件，組合成那部機器。甚至，它也能根據對自我的描繪，複製自己。 馮諾曼說，聽起來有點像自我複製了，但是，別急，還不成。新創造出來的第一部機器的複製品雖有了所有該有的零件，但是卻缺少自我描繪的藍圖，因此它無法進一步自我複製。所以，馮諾曼又假設第一部機器應該要有個藍圖複製機，能把對機器的描繪複製在下一代機器上。一旦如此，第二代機器也有了繼續繁殖的能力，這才是真正的自我複製功能。 馮諾曼想像中的自我複製分析非常簡單。馮諾曼的意思其實是，無論是自然或人工，任何自我複製系統的遺傳材料都必須扮演兩種不同的角色。一方面扮演程式的角色，是製造後代的過程中執行的某種演算法；另一方面則要扮演能被複製並遺傳到下一代的被動描述性資料。 馮諾曼的抽象分析結果變成驚人的科學預測，幾年後，在一九五三年，華森和克里克終於解開了DNA的分子結構之謎，他們的發現與馮諾曼主張的自我複製條件不謀而合。DNA一方面是遺傳的程式把製造酵素和蛋白質的指令，都譯成基因密碼；另一方面，DNA也是遺傳資料的儲藏所，每當細胞一分為二時，DNA雙螺旋結構就會解開並自我複製。演化以極經濟的方式，把遺傳材料的二元性植於DNA分子本身的結構之中。 同時，馮諾曼知道單靠想像的抽象分析還不夠，這個池塘上的自我複製機，形象還不夠具體，太過受制於過程中的材料細節。身為數學家，他想要的是完全形式化而抽象的東西。解答就在於後來被稱為細胞自動機的形式，這個形式實際上是由羅沙拉摩斯的數學家烏蘭所建議，烏蘭自己也對這個問題思索良久。 烏蘭建議的架構正是康威二十年後用來發明生命遊戲的架構。康威心知肚明，生命遊戲只是細胞自動機的特殊案例而已。基本上，烏蘭給馮諾曼的建議是，想像一個能以程式設定的宇宙，由宇宙的時鐘來定義時間，宇宙的空間則是由一個個分立的、格子狀的小細胞所界定，每個細胞中都是一個非常簡單、抽象定義的電腦有限的自動機。在任何時間的任何細胞中，自動機都只可能存在於無限狀態中的一種狀態，如紅、白、藍、綠、黃，或一、二、三、四，或生及死等。時鐘每動一下，自動機就會轉換到新的狀態，而新狀態是由它目前的狀態和鄰居目前的狀態所決定。因此，這個宇宙的物理定律是編碼於它的狀態轉換表格上規則會告訴每個自動機：針對鄰居的狀態改變，它應該轉換成哪一種狀態。 馮諾曼很欣賞細胞自動機的想法。這個系統既簡單、又抽象，能以數學方式來分析，但又豐富得能抓住他一直想了解的自我複製流程，這也是你能在真實的電腦上模擬的系統。但直到馮諾曼一九五四年死於癌症時，他都未能完成細胞自動機理論。之後，勃克斯整理馮諾曼已有的論文，並補充了部分細節後，結集成自我複製的自動機理論，於一九六六年出版。論文集的精華之一是，馮諾曼證明了至少有一種細胞自動機的形態能真正自我複製，他發現的這種形態非常複雜，需要大量的方格，而且每個細胞需要二十九種不同狀態，遠超出現存電腦的模擬能力。但是，這種形態確實存在的事實，已經解決了自我複製的基本問題：過去科學家認為，惟獨有生命的物體才有自我複製的特性，現在證明了機器也能自我複製。 觀察彩色的細胞世界 讀完這些書籍後，蘭頓說：突然之間，我覺得信心十足，我知道我走對了路。他回到蘋果電腦上，很快的寫下通用的細胞自動機程式，所以他能在螢幕上觀察彩色方格的細胞世界。由於蘋果電腦的記憶容量限制（只有六十四千位元組），他只能容許每個細胞有八種狀態，因此馮諾曼的二十九種狀態的自我複製體系不可能在他的電腦上出現，但是他仍然有可能找到在目前限制之下的自我複製系統。蘭頓於是自己設計了程式，以便能試驗每一組狀態及每一種轉換表格。由於每個細胞有八種狀態，因此他只需要試驗十的三萬次方種不同的表格。他決定著手嘗試。 蘭頓已經知道，這個嘗試不像表面上看起來那麼沒有希望。在閱讀的過程中，他發現十年前、當考德還在密西根的研究院師事賀南時，就曾經找到過有八種狀態的自我複製形態。儘管考德的形態對蘋果電腦而言還是太複雜了，蘭頓覺得也許試試看無妨，或許他還是能在重重限制下，找到比較簡單的形態。 蘭頓說：考德的所有配件都好像數據路徑一樣。也就是說，考德系統的八個自動機狀態中，有四個表現得好像數據位元，另外四個則扮演不同的輔助角色。有一種狀態特別具有導體的功能，另一種狀態則扮演絕緣體，因此兩者共同形成了在細胞之間流通數據的路徑，就好像銅線一樣。所以蘭頓先由架構考德的週期性放射器（periodic emitter）結構著手。基本上這是一個迴路，有個一位元的數據在其中不斷繞圈，就好像鐘錶的指針一樣；同時迴路的側面還會伸出某種手臂，週期性的發射出這個位元的複製品。接著，蘭頓開始修改這個發射器，在手臂上加了個蓋子，讓訊號不會跑掉。他以加上第二個繞圈的訊號來做這個蓋子，並扭曲規則表格等等。他知道他辦得到，只要能讓手臂自行伸出、彎回，形成和第一個迴路相同的迴路，就大功告成了。 挑燈夜戰 這進度十分緩慢。蘭頓夜夜工作到凌晨，他太太只有盡量忍耐。蘭頓說：她很關心我的情況，因為這是我的興趣，同時我快要有一些發現了。但是她更擔憂的是，我們將來要怎麼辦？這些研究會把我們帶往何處？對我們的家境有什麼幫助？兩年後我們會在哪裏？我很難解釋做了這個研究以後，接下來要拿它怎麼辦？老實說，我不知道，我只知道這個研究很重要。 蘭頓只能繼續奮戰到底。他說：我不時東有一些發現，西有一點成果。我先採用一個規則，然後修改這個規則，然後再修改，最後就把自己逼到死角。我保存的規則表格填滿了十五片磁碟，有了這些備份，我可以隨心所欲的試驗不同的方向。所以，什麼規則產生了哪一種行為，哪些地方有所變動，哪些資料我留了備份，存在哪一片磁碟上，我都必須詳細記錄。 從讀完馮諾曼的書到終於得到他要的結果，前後花了整整兩個月的時間。一天晚上，所有的片段終於拼湊在一起。他坐在那裏，凝視著螢幕上的迴圈伸出手臂，又捲起手臂形成一模一樣的新迴圈，如此繼續不斷，無窮的演變下去。他已經創造了有史以來最簡單的自我複製細胞自動機。他說：我激動的不得了，這是可能的，我真的成功了。演化現在有了意義，這不是外界的程式操控表格下的結果，這個系統自成一體，所以有機體本身就是完整的程式。如果這個研究成功了，那麼其他我在思考的問題，也都有可能證實。所有的可能性似乎都排山倒海而來，就好像一個骨牌倒塌，然後就一個接一個接一個的，不斷倒下來。 蘭頓心裏很清楚，現在他已經在細胞自動機的世界裏產生了自我複製的現象，他必須再增加一些要求，讓這些形態在進行複製前，先展現其他的功能，例如能集合足夠的能量或足夠的正確零件。他必須架構出很多這類的形態，因此這些形態會競相爭取資源，他也必須讓它們有能力到處游走，感覺彼此，而且容許在複製的過程中有產生突變和錯誤的可能性。這些都是我必須解決的問題，但是在這個馮諾曼的世界裏，我知道我可以將演化插入。 負笈北上 有了能自我複製的新一代細胞自動機，蘭頓又回到校園內，展開另一回合的努力，希望找到人支持他研讀跨學門的博士學位。他會指著電腦螢幕上展開的結構說：這就是我想研究的題目。 還是行不通，反應比上次還要冷淡。他說：有太多東西需要解釋了。人類學系的教授不懂電腦，更別提細胞自動機了。他們問：這和電玩有什麼不同？電腦科學系的人也不懂細胞自動機，他們對生物學毫無興趣。自我複製和電腦科學有什麼關係？所以，你試圖描繪出整幅圖像，在旁人眼中卻像個喃喃自語的白癡一樣。 我知道我沒瘋，我很清醒，比任何人都清醒。事實上，這還蠻令我擔心的，我知道狂人都有這種感覺。無論他神智清不清楚，顯然他在亞利桑那走投無路，該是試試其他地方的時候了。 蘭頓寫信給他過去的哲學指導教授薩爾門，薩爾門目前在匹茲堡大學教書。他問：我該怎麼辨？薩爾門回了一封信，信上是他太太的建議：追隨勃克斯。 勃克斯？蘭頓說：我以為他已經過世了，那個時代的人幾乎都已經不在了。但是，勃克斯事實上還活躍於密西根大學，而且當蘭頓開始和他通信時，勃克斯對他鼓勵有加，甚至還安排蘭頓拿研究助理或助教獎學金。他寫道：你儘管申請。 蘭頓沒有浪費一點時間。當時他已經曉得，密西根的電腦通訊學系正是因這方面的研究而知名。蘭頓說：對他們而言，任何資訊處理的方式都值得探討，我在這樣的哲學背景下申請入學。 不久，系主任佛瑞德（Gideon Frieder）教授回了一封信給他：很抱歉，你沒有適當的背景。一口回絕了他的申請。 蘭頓勃然大怒，以一封長達七頁的信反擊回去，大意是說，你在搞什麼鬼？這是你們設立的整個理念和存在的宗旨，而這也正是我想追求的目標，你卻對我說不？ 幾個星期後，佛瑞德又回信了，事實上，他這次的語氣是：歡迎加入。後來佛瑞德告訴蘭頓：我只是喜歡偶爾有個人像這樣對系主任咆哮。 實情當然不是那麼簡單，事實上，勃克斯和賀南都沒有看到蘭頓第一次的申請書。當時，為了官僚作業和財務上的某些原因，他們花了三十年心血建立的電腦通訊學系即將併入電機系，而電機系的人對研究的看法更實際。因此，佛瑞德等人開始不再那麼強調適應性演算之類的研究，而勃克斯和賀南正在想辦法力挽狂瀾。 無論幸或不幸，當時蘭頓對此毫無所悉，他只是很高興終於被錄取了。賽居拉也願意試試看，她必須放棄在亞利桑那大學的工作，而且從此遠離娘家。但是考慮到她現在懷孕了，有蘭頓的學生健康保險作後盾也不錯。此外，儘管他們倆都熱愛美國西南部的晴朗，偶爾看看中西部的雲，可能也別有一番趣味。 於是，一九八二年秋天，他們負笈北上。 知識大豐收 在密西根這段時間，至少在知識上，蘭頓收穫豐碩。他擔任勃克斯的計算歷史課程助教，吸收了電腦早期發展史的第一手資料。同時他利用一些最初的硬體，幫勃克斯組合出一部ENIAC，在課堂上展示。他也見到了賀南，在賀南的積體電路課堂上，蘭頓設計了一個晶片，可以快速執行賀南的分類者系統。 最重要的是，蘭頓用功苦讀，有系統的學習他過去零零星星吸收的知識，而且樂在其中。勃克斯、賀南和其他教授要求都很嚴格，蘭頓在密西根的時候，有一次他們幾乎當掉了每一個考博士資格口試的學生。（這些學生還有第二次機會。）他們可能問你根本與這門課不相干的問題，而你必須言之有物。我很欣賞這樣的求知過程，只求過關和融會貫通中間有很大的差別。 然而，在學術圈的政治角力場上，一切就不是那麼美好了。一九八四年下半年，蘭頓修完所有的課程，拿到了碩士學位，也通過了博士資格考，正準備著手於他的博士論文時，卻發現系方不准他以馮諾曼宇宙中的人工生命演化為題，撰寫博士論文。勃克斯和賀南的保衛行動失敗了，舊的電腦通訊學系已經併入電機系，而在強勢的電機文化下，勃克斯︱賀南式的自然系統課程實際上已經逐漸被淘汰出局。這是賀南會公然動怒的少數幾個場合之一。賀南原本聽信別人的話，以為自然系統觀點會被保留，因此大力主張兩系兼併；他現在覺得被擺了一道。也就差不多在這個時候，賀南開始積極參與聖塔菲研究院的事務。 賀南和勃克斯都鼓勵蘭頓找一個更像電腦科學、而不那麼偏向生物學的題目；從實際面來看，蘭頓承認他們不無道理。當時，我已經曉得要模擬馮諾曼的系統將會非常困難。因此，他開始尋找一個能夠花一、兩年，而不是一、二十年，來完成的題目。 他想，與其想要建立一個完整的馮諾曼宇宙，何不從多了解一些宇宙的物理著手呢？何不試圖了解為什麼有些細胞自動機規則的表格能讓你創造出有趣的結構，有些則不然？至少，這是個正確的方向，其中可能包括許多核心的電腦科學理論，足以讓這些工程學派滿意。如果幸運的話，說不定還會和真正的物理學發生一些關聯。的確，細胞自動機和物理的結合已經成為近來的熱門話題。一九八四年，物理天才渥富仁還在加州理工學院就讀時就指出，細胞自動機不但有豐富的數學結構，並且和非線性動力系統非常類似。 渥富仁的細胞自動機規則 特別令蘭頓心動的是，渥富仁主張所有的細胞自動機規則，都可以歸為四種普遍性等級（universality class）。 第一級包含了所謂的末日規則：無論開始時的活細胞或死細胞表現什麼形態，在一、兩個時步內，一切都會滅亡，螢幕上的圖案會變成單色畫面。以動力系統的術語來形容，這種規則似乎有個單一的點吸子（point attractor），也就是說，這個系統在數學上就好像一粒彈珠滾到一個大碗的底部，無論彈珠是從碗的哪一邊開始滾動，它都永遠會急速滾到碗底的中心點死亡狀態。