Cool idea. I just made a quick implementation for those who want to use it/see it live:<p><a href="https://github.com/thearn/game-of-life/blob/master/image.py" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/thearn/game-of-life/blob/master/image.py</a><p>I'll make a quick .gif, if folks are interested.
> The only other thing I'll state is that Life is a Turing-complete machine, so with right initial states it can "do" any computer algorithm.<p>This only hints at the more important part: only a Turing-complete language can implement Life. Thus, an implementation of Life in a particular language is proof that that language is Turing-complete.
The author has a repo on GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/anbud/PxlSort" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/anbud/PxlSort</a><p>(The link was hidden midway through the article and it was very non-obvious that it was a link)
You can also create automata with video by treating it as a three dimensional world. I did a bit of messing around with this a few months ago[1] and created some examples. The only one I can still find that is interesting is probably this one: <a href="http://gfycat.com/SelfreliantUnequaledAmericanindianhorse" rel="nofollow">http://gfycat.com/SelfreliantUnequaledAmericanindianhorse</a> (Forgive the source material.)<p>Of course it's hard to look at all of a video at once, so you only see slices of the actual world...<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/Wollw/Video-Automata" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Wollw/Video-Automata</a>
Here's an example I made in plnkr.co: <a href="http://embed.plnkr.co/y1a3DWh1P8tTTUamsWbE/preview" rel="nofollow">http://embed.plnkr.co/y1a3DWh1P8tTTUamsWbE/preview</a><p>It begins by filling in the canvas with random colors.
If you're interested in how artists use these systems, McCabe's Bone Music is a good start: <a href="https://vimeo.com/17329897" rel="nofollow">https://vimeo.com/17329897</a>.