Universal Eater

[OMIKRON]

I'm interested of the existence of the universal eater, which eats any ship coming from any direction. Surely I know that it can't be a simple pattern. I don't know how to implement it in practice, but in theory I think that universal eater must consist of several parts (let's call them subeater), which are connected by a continuous connection (for example streams of gliders), the existence of which means that all subeaters all in order. If into one subeater invades a ship, then link with neighboring subeaters disappeares and they will try to build destroying subeater again. Because ships can come from any direction, so there must be central, internal subeaters, which are covered by external ones, that the eater won't destroyed with simple method, that for each subeater will be sent one ship. I'm not sure that such a universal eater is possible, but I believe that it's possible for only gliders.

P.S. Yes, I thought about debris, which will certainly interfere with building of damaged subeater, and gliders, that will invade to other subeaters, but it's only my picture of universal eater.

2-nd P.S. I'm not English. And I know, my English is extremely bad.

Thanks.

[codeholic]

It is an open problem. The answer to it is believed to be "no", but no strict proof exists.

By the way, it is one of the best options to get John Conway's autograph (on a $50 check) http://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Lifeline_Volume_7