The ant traces a pseudo-random path until around 10,000 steps. After a few hundred moves, a large, irregular pattern of black and white squares appears. During the first few hundred moves it creates very simple patterns which are often symmetric. Three distinct modes of behavior are apparent, when starting on a completely white grid. These simple rules lead to complex behavior. Langton's ant can also be described as a cellular automaton, where the grid is colored black or white and the "ant" square has one of eight different colors assigned to encode the combination of black/white state and the current direction of motion of the ant. At a black square, turn 90° counter-clockwise, flip the color of the square, move forward one unit.At a white square, turn 90° clockwise, flip the color of the square, move forward one unit.The "ant" moves according to the rules below: The ant can travel in any of the four cardinal directions at each step it takes. We arbitrarily identify one square as the "ant". Squares on a plane are colored variously either black or white. Animation of first 200 steps of Langton's ant
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