Meanings
- not comparableOf or relating to totalism.
- not comparablecellular automataHaving the state of each cell represented by a number, and the value of a cell dependent only on the sum of the values of nearby cells.
BTW: Of course the rules were parametrised, so any totalistic 2-dimensional 9-neighbourhood CA could be run.
1989 March 21, Mark Kramer, “Fast LIFE (was: Re: summing 9-cell neighborhoods)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)2 more examples
Note that the game of life is not totalistic: the transition function depends on the cell's own state and on the sum of the neighboring states.
1993 January 17, Dan Gordon, “Universal Cellular Automata.”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)The Xor operation drastically cuts down the number of operations when dealing with totalistic CA rules. For example, a function of four variables a, b, c, d, returning 1 iff there are exactly two ones and two zeros among its arguments, is represented by this Karnaugh diagram:
1994 July 3, Serge Winitzki, “Optimizing "bitblt" functions using Xor”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet) - not comparablecellular automataOuter totalistic.
... but the B/S notation is _the_ standard for two-state totalistic rules.
2001 October 31, Erik Francis, “Four new rules with replicators”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)2 more examples
Many good applets run Moore binary totalistic rules such as Conway's Life, but WebsideCA also runs von Neumann rules, rules in the "Brian's Brain" family, non-totalistic binary and decay rules, and Cyclic rules.
1999 September 2, J. Elliott, “ANNOUNCE: WebsideCA Java applet update”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)Since Life is totalistic on 8 neighbours, this requires no extra assumptions.
2000 August 20, Gerard Vriens, “Discussion: neighbourhoods”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveof or relating to the principles of totalitarianism according to which the state regulates every realm of life
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Māori angangarengare
- angangarengarerelating to the doctrine of totalitarianism
Cite this entry
totalistic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/totalistic
“totalistic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/totalistic. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “totalistic,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/totalistic.
Source: totalistic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.