*scratch*.el

(defun ca-vectorize ()
  (let* ((line (thing-at-point 'line t))
         (ll (string-to-list line))
         (result (make-vector (1- (length ll)) 0))) ; skip newline
    (loop for c in ll
          for i below (length ll)
          do (unless (equal c ?\n)
               (if (equal c ?\s)
                   (setf (elt result i) 0)
                 (setf (elt result i) 1))))
    result))

(defun ca-step (vec)
  (let* ((len (length vec))
         (result (make-vector len 0)))
    (loop for i below len
          do (setf (aref result i)
                   (cond
                    ((= i 0)         (ca-next                 0 (aref vec i) (aref vec (1+ i))))
                    ((> i (- len 2)) (ca-next (aref vec (1- i)) (aref vec i)               0))
                    (t               (ca-next (aref vec (1- i)) (aref vec i) (aref vec (1+ i)))))))
    result))

(defun ca-next (left middle right)
  (let ((x (list left middle right)))
    (cond
     ((equal x '(1 1 1)) 0)
     ((equal x '(1 1 0)) 1)
     ((equal x '(1 0 1)) 1)
     ((equal x '(1 0 0)) 0)
     ((equal x '(0 1 1)) 1)
     ((equal x '(0 1 0)) 1)
     ((equal x '(0 0 1)) 1)
     ((equal x '(0 0 0)) 0))))

(defun ca-print (vec)
  (seq-doseq (c vec)
    (if (= c 1)
        (insert "*")
      (insert " ")))
  (insert "\n"))

(let ((vector [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0])
      (prev-vector nil))
  (do ((i 0))
      ((or (equal vector prev-vector)
           (> i 100)))
    (ca-print vector)
    (setf prev-vector vector)
    (setf vector (ca-step vector))
    (incf i)))