https://bradleycarey.com/tags/algorithms/ Recent content in Algorithms on bradleycarey.com Hugo en Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:17:57 -0400 https://bradleycarey.com/posts/checkbox-simulations/ Sun, 15 Mar 2026 19:45:00 -0500 https://bradleycarey.com/posts/checkbox-simulations/ <p>The 1-bit constraint is most interesting when you stack it against a system with real state. These four demos are simulations. They evolve by rules, and the checkboxes just report what happened. The display isn&rsquo;t the computation; it&rsquo;s the readout.</p> <h2 id="slime-mold-simulation-interactive"> <strong><a href="https://bradleycarey.com/checkboxes/slime-mold-simulation.html" >Slime Mold Simulation</a></strong> <em>(interactive)</em> <a class="heading-link" href="#slime-mold-simulation-interactive"> <i class="fa-solid fa-link" aria-hidden="true" title="Link to heading"></i> <span class="sr-only">Link to heading</span> </a> </h2> <p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physarum_polycephalum" class="external-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Physarum polycephalum</a> is a slime mold that navigated mazes, solved the shortest path between oat flakes, and independently approximated the Tokyo subway network. It has no brain, no neurons, no central coordination. Researchers at Hokkaido University published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1177894" class="external-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a paper about it in Science in 2010</a> and everyone was appropriately unsettled.</p>