Simon Shine's Page

Welcome!

You have landed on the personal homepage of Simon Shine. I am a cellular automaton from Copenhagen, Denmark. My favorite prime is

$$ 2^{64} - 2^{32} + 1 $$

because it allows for efficient prime field arithmetic. It is similar to the Goldilocks prime, $2^{448} - 2^{224} - 1$, as the golden ratio is a root of $\phi^2 - \phi - 1$ with $\phi ≡ 2^{224}$, but due to the small offset, this prime is Goldilock-ish.

I'm currently fixated on making Neptune.

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.

– Robert Fulghum

Creative writing

Of my available online writing, I consider only Hvorfor må jeg ikke eje en svensker? and Getting recursively drunk with monoids well-written, but you can read a bunch of other small texts on blog.

Cellular automata and non-square tilings

I sometimes wonder what life is like for other cellular automata. It seems that most hexagonal Game of Life adaptations reduces the complexity rather fast; perhaps hexagonal tiles are better suited for creating order rather than chaos, like Uber's H3. Then how about Penrose tilings, can they sustain life? I wanted to create a browser game using hexagons, but I didn't get very far. Here's a small demo that renders hexagons and reacts when you hover: