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Baba Is Universal

Authors Zachary Abel, Della Hendrickson

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Author Details

Zachary Abel
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Della Hendrickson
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

Acknowledgements

This work was initiated at the 34th Bellairs Winter Workshop on Computational Geometry in March 2019 in Holetown, Barbados, which was organized by Erik Demaine and Godfried Toussaint. We thank the other participants for helpful discussion and contributing to a collaborative and productive research environment.

Cite AsGet BibTex

Zachary Abel and Della Hendrickson. Baba Is Universal. In 12th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 291, pp. 1:1-1:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)
https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.FUN.2024.1

Abstract

We consider the computational complexity of constant-area levels of games which allow an unlimited number of objects in a fixed region. We discuss how to prove that such games are RE-hard (and in particular undecidable) and capable of universal computation, even on constant-area levels. We use the puzzle game Baba is You as a case study, showing that 8×17 levels are capable of universal computation by constructing a particular small universal counter machine within Baba is You.

Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Theory of computation → Problems, reductions and completeness
Keywords
  • Undecidability
  • Baba is You
  • RE-hardness
  • counter machines
  • universal computation

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