Example: A Growing Point

When a well-formed GPL program is running an Amorphous computation, one of two results can usually be expected. Either the computation will terminate with the accomplishment of the goal, or a growing-point will become "stuck" midway through a computation. A growing point may become stuck for a variety of reasons, but ultimately, it is because none of the neighboring values received by the growing point meets the criterion for propagation. Because the growing point cannot progress towards its immediate goal, we have a simple example of the failure of a module to achieve conditions promised by the plan. The question that naturally arises is how we may extend the Growing Point Language to recognize when it has become ``stuck,'' probe its neighbors to determine what may have caused the failure, and implement a new strategy based on the information it found.