Langton's Ant

Invented by Chris Langton in 1986. An ant moves on a grid of cells following two simple rules:

• At a black square, turn 90° clockwise, flip the color of the square, and move forward.
• At a white (or colored) square, turn 90° counter-clockwise, flip the color of the square, and move forward.

Despite the deterministic and simple rules, the ant's behavior seems chaotic for thousands of steps before spontaneously organizing into an emergent periodic "highway" that shoots off into the distance.

Click on the canvas to drop a new ant. Multiple ants will interact via the trails they leave behind.