Does this 2D cellular automaton have a known name and history?
- n colors (numbered 1 to n), assigned randomly at the start.
- For each generation, every cell that has at least one neighbour cell with a color that is one higher changes its color to that "next higher" color. Additionally, the "lowest" color is considered "next higher" to the highest one.
- Emergent behaviour shows up best around n=16, disappears for much higher or much lower n
I have it implemented on my website so you can see it in action.
I saw this ages ago and always remembered it as a great example of emergent behaviour, but can't remember what it was called, and couldn't find it on Wikipedia or Wolfram Mathworld.