FAQ: Is this a new discovery? Is this already known?
Posted: January 3rd, 2025, 3:13 am
One of the most frequent (and often hard to answer) questions is "Is this new?"
The purpose of this forum thread is to collect possible answers that can be expected to be helpful.
There are many different kinds of components, reactions, patterns, and that often affects how one can look up for what is already known.
If you know an answer that isn't mentioned yet (e.g. a new pattern collection or database), please post it in this thread.
Q: I found an interesting pattern, is it already known?
A:
If you found some reaction, pattern, component and you don't know whether it is new, you can post it in Thread for your unsure discoveries. When posting, please describe the pattern and mention how it was found (for example, was it found manually, or with some search program?)
It may be hard to tell whether something is new. (However, see links below for some existing ways.) Even if your pattern turns out a rediscovery, it can be interesting to know how it was rediscovered; this can help to understand how to find more similar patterns.
It is highly encouraged to do some research to get an idea of what is already known. Here are some of the existing ways how you can look up yourself what is known about Conway's Life:
A: Take a look at the following collections:
A: Take a look at the following collections:
A: Here are additional links, in no particular order:
The purpose of this forum thread is to collect possible answers that can be expected to be helpful.
There are many different kinds of components, reactions, patterns, and that often affects how one can look up for what is already known.
If you know an answer that isn't mentioned yet (e.g. a new pattern collection or database), please post it in this thread.
Q: I found an interesting pattern, is it already known?
A:
If you found some reaction, pattern, component and you don't know whether it is new, you can post it in Thread for your unsure discoveries. When posting, please describe the pattern and mention how it was found (for example, was it found manually, or with some search program?)
It may be hard to tell whether something is new. (However, see links below for some existing ways.) Even if your pattern turns out a rediscovery, it can be interesting to know how it was rediscovered; this can help to understand how to find more similar patterns.
It is highly encouraged to do some research to get an idea of what is already known. Here are some of the existing ways how you can look up yourself what is known about Conway's Life:
- Jason Summers' pattern collections: https://entropymine.com/jason/life/
- Mark Niemiec's pattern searcher: https://conwaylife.com/ref/mniemiec/lifesrch.htm
- Catagolue pattern searcher: https://catagolue.hatsya.com/object
- LifeWiki: https://conwaylife.com/wiki/Main_Page
- Golly's supplied pattern collection.
- If you know (or if you can guess) how components, reactions, patterns "of the same sort" are typically described, please try searching for those keywords on the forums. Likewise, if there is already a forum thread intended for sharing discoveries of a specific kind, please read through that thread to see what is already known. For example, searching in the Oscillator Discussion Thread with the keyword "p81" gives several posts with complete or partial period-81 oscillators. Many discoveries in Conway's Life are shared and discussed in the forum "Patterns".
A: Take a look at the following collections:
- The jslife collection contains an oscillator section that shows most of the significant oscillators found before 2013.
- The osc-supplement collection includes oscillators found from the beginning of 2013 to the end of 2014.
- The latest version of the oscillator stamp collection contains many newer oscillators, but overall it's not as complete.
- For billiard table oscillators, check the knownrotors file; for details see the forum post viewtopic.php?p=155451#p155451
- Try searching in the Oscillator Discussion Thread on the forums.
A: Take a look at the following collections:
- The jslife-moving collection is a collection of moving objects found in Conway's Life, extending part of Jason Summers' jslife collection.
- Lots of spaceships and knightt results are large collections of spaceships of limited width found with the gfind and knightt search programs respectively.
- Try searching in the Spaceship Discussion Thread on the forums.
A: Here are additional links, in no particular order: