Using Dynamical Systems Theory to Quantify Complexity in Asymptotic Lenia
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Continuous cellular automata (CCAs) have evolved from discrete lookup tables to continuous partial differential equation (PDE) formulations in the search for novel forms of complexity. Despite innovations in qualitative behavior, analytical methods have lagged behind, reinforcing the notion that emergent complexity defies simple explanation. In this paper, we demonstrate that the PDE formulation of Asymptotic Lenia enables rigorous analysis using dynamical systems theory. We apply the concepts of symmetries, attractors, Lyapunov exponents, and fractal dimensions to characterize complex behaviors mathematically. Our contributions include: (1) a mathematical explanation for the four distinct solution classes (solitons, rotators, periodic and chaotic patterns), (2) conditions for the existence of a global attractor with fractal dimension > 4, (3) identification of Kaplan-Yorke dimension as an effective complexity measure for CCAs, and (4) an efficient open-source implementation for calculating Lyapunov exponents and the covariant Lyapunov vectors for CCAs. We conclude by identifying the minimal set of properties that enable complex behavior in a broader class of CCAs. This framework provides a foundation for understanding and measuring complexity in artificial life systems.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".