Hello! Some assistance perhaps needed

[Maaruk]

Hello friends, my name is Warren Jones. My Eskimo name is Maaruk, I am Gwich'in and Yup'ik (northernmost Indian and Coastal Eskimo respectively) I am a Northern Philosopher (the philosophy of the circumpolar north) from Alaska. I had been turned on to Conway's Game of Life studying Complex Systems Theory and found it to be extremely fascinating. I have been working on a theory for over a year, and I am using cellular automaton as an example.

I wanted to use CGoL in particular in deference to what was in my opinion, really a great idea in the history of science.

I was looking for a specific example, really any of them would work but what would work the best is a still life. Preferably a large-ish block. The example I see on the wiki is one of the originals, and is 4x4.

Is there an example of a block, or another solid still life which you guys would recommend which demonstrates moving through iterations in GoL and ending in a stable shape so that any person looking at it gets a general idea of what is happening? I know I could likely just download the program, dink around and make a GIF (or even just a series of images would work) myself but I had hoped something was already done considering the amount of work it looks like has been done creating around here. A cursory google search shows quite a few GIFs but nothing alone the lines of what I was looking for.

Thanks for your time.

[Maaruk]

http://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Blockade

seems like it might fit the bill

A common evolutionary sequence that leads to its formation is known as lumps of muck, which can be seen by letting the stairstep hexomino evolve.

This looks perfect actually. To whom do I give credit to for this gif? is it user Scotgot?

[Maaruk]

OK, actually I need a simpler example. I might just use the 4x4 block as I can't exactly use a GIF in a traditional paper. According to the wiki the block is the most common still life resulting from many random starting patterns.

Can someone turn me on to a good starting pattern that would end up with a block after say 8 iterations? I wanna use a image by image graphic in the paper itself, but maybe on the online one use the lumps of muck because it demonstrates the general phenomena I'm using as an example.

[biggiemac]

Perhaps a good example would be the two-glider collision below that results in a block 10 generations later.

Code: Select all

x = 5, y = 8, rule = B3/S23
bo$o$3o3$2b2o$3b2o$2bo!

If you want a more random looking start configuration there are scripts people have posted somewhere that give predecessors of whatever pattern you give it, and rewinding 8 generations is reasonable with them. You can find all the block ancestors you'd ever want with those

[Maaruk]

That would be cool, I like your example but yeah I did want something that started more "soupy" and ended in blocks. I'll poke around and see what I can find, I'm gonna have to do this the old fashioned way and just state the rules and show how it changes from soup to block iteration by iteration, then stays a block unless outside forces act on it.

[M. I. Wright]

Code: Select all

x = 4, y = 4, rule = B3/S23
2obo$4o$2obo$obo!

?

I have a truckload of others (from a script that checked 4x4 soups), but this one stood out from the first ten results I looked at since (a) it's exactly 8 generations before the block appears, and (b) the block isn't too far away from the initial bounding box. Hope it works, but if not I can post some of the other results

[toroidalet]

OK, actually I need a simpler example. I might just use the 4x4 block as I can't exactly use a GIF in a traditional paper. According to the wiki the block is the most common still life resulting from many random starting patterns.

Can someone turn me on to a good starting pattern that would end up with a block after say 8 iterations? I wanna use a image by image graphic in the paper itself, but maybe on the online one use the lumps of muck because it demonstrates the general phenomena I'm using as an example.

Another example would be my username in Apgcode, although it only takes 5 generations instead of 8.

Code: Select all

x = 10, y = 5, rule = B3/S23
5o2bobo$4ob2ob2o$obo2bob3o$4b5o$2ob2obob2o!

Alternatively, an 8-generation pattern which could be in a soup:

Code: Select all

x = 12, y = 9, rule = B3/S23
10b2o$10b2o2$7b3o$9bo$6bo2bo$2ob2ob3o2$2bo!

[Maaruk]

beautiful, thank you i'll post up the theory as soon as I'm done with it. Sent it to a friend and he's already all over my passive voice and grammar.