Really? I'm just a layman but if it's a simulation, like game of life, then logic tells me that they should also be able to rewind the simulation by backstepping. Either that, or she just created magic.
It's worth pointing out as an aside that you actually can't rewind the (Conway) game of life: the current state does not contain enough information to recreate the previous state. The reason is that many states can arise as a result of multiple possible precursor states.
Diane's simulation is perhaps similar: a gigantically complex system of cellular automata.
Game of Life isn't reversible. Take any oscillator, say a blinker http://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Blinker , trying to reverse that you don't know if it was the opposite state the step before or some other pattern that became a blinker.
>"Ah, no. Ask me again on Monday."
Really? I'm just a layman but if it's a simulation, like game of life, then logic tells me that they should also be able to rewind the simulation by backstepping. Either that, or she just created magic.