A forum for topics that don't fit elsewhere. Introduce yourselves to other members of the forums, discuss how your name evolves when written out in the Game of Life, or just tell us how you found it. Forum rules still apply.
1. ONE (in-game) PATTERN PER POST. If you see somebody posting multiple in-game patterns in one post, only count the first one and try to think of a different solution. This doesn't apply if you're posting out-of-game patterns, however.
2. All patterns must be predecessors of the previous pattern.
3. Try and be creative.
4. If we somehow reach a GoE, restart. Not sure if that's possible though.
I'll start (and by coincidence, all of these are going to be Diehards) with a dot spark:
There should probably be some sort of limit to putting dot sparks far from the pattern, so people don't just give a standard predecessor plus 150 well-separated dots. I am adding one to my pattern below but not going overboard.
I feel it's going to be difficult to keep this game to manageable patterns. I'm not quite sure precisely where it became inevitable that predecessors would become complicated - it's not like the dot spark is that uncommon - but I suspect it was early on, i.e. t=-2 or maybe even t=-1.
wildmyron wrote:Anybody care to make the next move? I'm hoping to try to stabilise a segment of the pattern but it's not looking hopeful.
Yeah, it seems to be tough to fight one's way out of space dust once it gets going. I can't seem to find a predecessor in the same bounding box with less than 48 ON cells:
x = 11, y = 12, rule = B3/S23
ob2o$b2obobo3bo$2o7bo$o2b2o3b3o$bob2o2b4o$4bo4bo$2b2obobo$o$3obo2bobo$
2bobo2bo2bo$4b2o$3b2obo2b2o!
Can get down to 47 if I allow a cell to sneak out of the bounding box to the south. But it's all pretty space-dusty anyway, so I'm sticking with the above as the official Dot Spark Minus Seven / Vacuum Minus Eight.
muzik wrote:What are the chances that we'll hit a GoE in say, 3 months?
Probably extremely high. The vast majority of large patterns are GoEs, so unless the predecessors are very carefully chosen, they are likely to eventually hit a GoE wall.
Caenbe wrote:How do we know we haven't hit a GoE already? Has anyone at least found a predecessor?
We won't know for absolutely sure until somebody bothers to set up Vacuum-Minus-Eight in JLS and set a search going. It won't take long to run such a search.
Only an incredibly rare scattering of 11x12 patterns are Gardens of Eden, so basically this pattern just isn't big enough yet to have any realistic chance of making the grade.
Quite possibly we _could_ keep this game going indefinitely without hitting a GoE, if we wanted to. The trick might be to try to stabilize the center of the pattern -- or one edge of it would be better, if possible -- and run searches that move the active pattern away from the stabilized part. If the bounding box increases quickly enough, it shouldn't be too hard to dodge GoEs. One obvious way would be to find a glider synthesis of Vacuum-Minus-Eight...!
dvgrn wrote:We won't know for absolutely sure until somebody bothers to set up Vacuum-Minus-Eight in JLS and set a search going. It won't take long to run such a search.
x = 15, y = 17, rule = B3/S23
3b2obo3bo2bo$bo6bo3bo$2b2ob3o3b3o$2o3b3o3b2obo$b2o2bo4bo$bo5bobobo$3bo
3b2ob2o2bo$b6o3b3o$3bo3b2o3bobo$bo3bo4bo2bo$o2b2o5b5o$b2o2bo3bo2b3o$b
3obo2b3o2bo$2bo2bob3o2b3o$2bo4b2obob3o$13bo$bo4bob2o3bo!
Or we could do a long line of cells connected diagonally. Much simpler.
EDIT:
If you have 3 green cells as shown in the pattern below, then it won't work. I figured it out with logic and Life's properties, can you see why?:
x = 15, y = 17, rule = B3/S23
3b2obo3bo2bo$bo6bo3bo$2b2ob3o3b3o$2o3b3o3b2obo$b2o2bo4bo$bo5bobobo$3bo
3b2ob2o2bo$b6o3b3o$3bo3b2o3bobo$bo3bo4bo2bo$o2b2o5b5o$b2o2bo3bo2b3o$b
3obo2b3o2bo$2bo2bob3o2b3o$2bo4b2obob3o$13bo$bo4bob2o3bo!
Or we could do a long line of cells connected diagonally. Much simpler.
No, that' s an awful idea. self-deprecatory joke because I started the diagonal line in the first place
And, I'm just throwing this out there: we could restart.
Music make you lose control
Music make you lose control
echo "print(10**10**5//~-10**1000//9801)" | python | aplay
x = 17, y = 19, rule = B3/S23
3bo$3bo4b2ob2o$2b3ob9o$4ob8o$2b9ob3o$9o3bo$2b2o2b2o4b3o$5b2o2bob2o$6bo
4bo$6bo2bo$6b2o3bo$5b6o$5b7o$6bo4b3obo$5bo3bob4o$10b5obo$11b4o$9bo5bo$
13bo!
The torch of 5S has been passed on again, and is now managed by speedydelete. It can be found here. Also check out my program EPE, a tool for searching for patterns in various rulespaces.
