The 9 to 0 Golly Challenge: Can It Be Done Without Python, Lua, Ada or Any Programming Language?

[MortezaRahmani]

The 9 to 0 Golly Challenge
Can It Be Done Without Python, Lua, Ada, or Any Programming Language?

I would like to propose a small challenge for the Golly and cellular automata community.
The goal is to create a pattern in Golly that visually performs the following countdown:

9 → 8 → 7 → 6 → 5 → 4 → 3 → 2 → 1 → 0

The important point is that I am not simply looking for a pattern that produces or displays the digits 0 through 9.
The intended effect is a visual countdown in which the current digit fades out or disappears through the evolution of the pattern, and the next digit appears as part of that same evolution.
For example:

9 fades out → 8 appears → 8 fades out → 7 appears → ... → 1 fades out → 0 appears

The GIF attached to this post illustrates the intended visual effect.

The Rules
The challenge is deliberately restricted:

• No Python
• No Lua
• No Ada
• No JavaScript, C, C++, or any other programming language
• No external program controlling Golly
• No script telling Golly which digit to display

The solution should be achieved through Golly itself and its native pattern, rule, and encoding capabilities.
In other words, the interesting question is:

Can the pattern itself perform the visual countdown?

Respecting Previous Work
I am aware that cellular automata and Conway's Game of Life already have sophisticated counters, digital clocks, and other computational constructions.
I have great respect for those previous achievements, and this challenge is not intended to dismiss or replace them.
What I am looking for is a more specific construction matching the visual behavior shown here: a self-evolving 9 to 0 countdown in which the previous digit disappears and the next digit emerges through the evolution of the pattern itself.
So this is not simply about making the digits 0 through 9 appear, or about counting upward from 0 until another number appears.
The desired behavior is specifically:

9 → fade out → 8 → fade out → 7 → ... → 1 → fade out → 0

And to be completely transparent...
I have not solved this myself.
I am proposing this as a genuine challenge because I am also trying to find out whether it can be done under these restrictions.
A solution does not necessarily have to be minimal or elegant. Even an experimental, partial, or unconventional construction would be interesting.
So, the question is:

Can we make Golly itself perform a visual 9 to 0 countdown, using only the cellular automaton and Golly's native capabilities, with no programming language involved?

I'm looking for the solution too.
Let the challenge begin!

Nine2ZeroCountdown.gif (26.49 KiB) Viewed 124 times

[LuveelVoom]

Alright, someone bring out a circuitry rule or the ruletable searcher...

[Gustone]

Patterns/HashLife/Metacell/hexadecimal.mc.gz is close

[NNlk05]

Alright, someone bring out a circuitry rule or the ruletable searcher...

We don't need all that

Code: Select all

x = 44, y = 9, rule = B3/S23Super
6.3X.3X.3X.3X.3X.X.X.3X.3X2.X.3X$6.X.X.X.X3.X.X3.X3.X.X3.X3.X2.X.X.X$
6.3X.3X3.X.3X.3X.3X.3X.3X2.X.X.X$8.X.X.X3.X.X.X3.X3.X3.X.X4.X.X.X$6.3X
.3X3.X.3X.3X3.X.3X.3X2.X.3X$A2.A$4.A$A3.A$.4A!

[CasperWen8805181]

What do you mean by no python, lua, ada, and other languages? as in they cannot be used to identify patterns, so we would need to manually search? also, is this challenge limited to life or also to OCA? And also, with all due respect, why this specifically?

If OCA is allowed, I'll assume LtL is also allowed, so there's probably some very niche mapped rule that is very very hard to find but can accomplish the goal.

And if OCA is allowed, are coded rules (Like the one in the post below) allowed? since they still categorize as OCA.

[unname4798]

Code: Select all

x = 15, y = 22, rule = countdown
ABCDEABCDEABCDE$J.HGFJ.HG.JIHGF4$AB.DE5.ABC$J3.F5.JIHGF4$AB.DEAB.DEAB
CDE$J.HGF2.HGFJIHGF4$.B.D6.ABCDE$J.H7.JI.GF4$AB.DEAB.DEABCDE$J.HG.J.H
G.JIHGF!
[[ GPS 1 AUTOSTART ]]
@RULE countdown
@TABLE
n_states:11
neighborhood:oneDimensional
symmetries:permute
var a={0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}
var b=a
1,a,b,0
2,a,b,1
3,a,b,2
4,a,b,3
5,a,b,4
6,a,b,5
7,a,b,6
8,a,b,7
9,a,b,8
10,a,b,9
@COLORS
0 0 0 0
1 255 255 255
2 0 0 0
3 0 0 0
4 0 0 0
5 0 0 0
6 0 0 0
7 0 0 0
8 0 0 0
9 0 0 0
10 0 0 0