Grounded Life is a Life-like cellular automaton in which a cell survives from one generation to the next if it has 2 or 3 neighbors, and is born if it has 3 or 5 neighbors. Under this rule, patterns tend to stabilize much more quickly than in standard Life,[1] which is one of the reasons for its name.
Because Grounded Life adds one birth transition from Life, all still lives in Grounded Life are still lives in Conway's Game of Life, but the reverse is not true. For example, the boat fails in Grounded Life.
Many small still lifes under the standard Life rules have dead cells with five alive neighbours, so the list of still lifes for the two rules are extremely different for both small and large cell counts. The smallest patterns that are still lifes in the standard Life rules but not in Grounded Life are boat (with 5 cells), beehive (with 6 cells) and loaf, long boat and fishhook (with 7 cells). Thus, the smallest asymmetric still life is hook with tail.
Also, any pattern using a house, bookend, or bun as an induction coil that is a still life under the standard rules, any extended forms of the ship or boat, any still life in Life that contains a pre-blockmotif (that is not part of a hook or stabilised by an aircraft carrier-like formation) or a still life where a 2-cell long line stabilises a 4-cell line by induction are not still lifes in Grounded Life.
All still lifes up to 13 bits have occurred naturally, with 36 14-bit still lifes that have not been found in soup. Notably, barge, aircraft carrier and carrier bridge carrier are much more common than in Life, with carrier bridge carrier being about 1,500 times as common as it is in Life, making it the most common 12-cell still life by far.
Oscillators
Naturally occurring objects in this rule include oscillators of periods 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 26. There are also semi-natural oscillators of periods 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 18, 21, 24, 26, 29, 33, 46, 82, and 142. Alien oscillators are also much more common than in similar[which?] rules, especially 8P8 (a mirrored short table) and 8P4 (a pre-pulsar predecessor in Life).
Notably, the washing machine is much more common in this rule, even in asymmetric soups.
It is the 56th most common object in asymmetric soups and the 21st most common object in D4_x1 soups. Toads and clocks are also significantly more common, and blinkers are more common than blocks.
x = 14, y = 12, rule = B35/S23
$9bo$8bobo$7bo3bo$8bo2bo$9b3o2$4bo$3bobo$3bobo$4b2o!
#C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]
#C [[ HEIGHT 600 ZOOM 20 AUTOSTART GPS 10 THEME BOOK T 0 PAUSE 2 T 77 PAUSE 2 LOOP 100 ]]
Typical formation of a washing machine with a bun (Which evolves to the fleet sequence) and a bakery sequence, that does not work in Life. This also highlights the fact that washing machines tend to form with beacons. (click above to open LifeViewer)
Many alien oscillators exist in this rule, several of which are shown below:
A stamp collection of natural and semi-natural oscillators. From left to right, top to bottom, they are:
12P2 and Washing machine (rare examples of billiard tables in Grounded Life. Note that washing machine still works in Life, but is notably more common in this rule and is thus mentioned.), 14P3 (a natural oscillator resembling the caterer), 8P4 (a pre-pulsar predecessor in rules without B5e as it is dependant on that transition. It resembles 8P8.), 12P4 (dependent on the B5a transition; the pattern dies in Life due to the lack of it. Also most common in one-cell-thick patterns and C4_4, instead of its native symmetry, D8_4. ), 56P11 (resemblant of Achim's p11), 36P10 (p10 flipper with mod 5), 46P6 (Four rock toads hassling unknown active region, also a strong middleweightsparker), 14P8 (extensible, although only in discrete lengths or with proper induction coils. Also dependent on the B5a transition; the pattern dies in Life due to the lack of it), 8P8 (a mirrored short table), 32P33 (four blocks hassling four T-tetrominos), 60P21 (four blocks hassling 8 pi-heptominoes), 88P10 (Beacon and ship hassler, also a T-nose.), 18P26 (the highest-period oscillator to have appeared naturally), 24P26 (an oscillator composed of interacting beehive sparks; appears in 1 in 1250 C4_4 soups), 48P46 (a shuttle of loaf and beehive sparks), 36P82 (A T-nose), 104P142 (A B-heptomino shuttle, also the highest period oscillator to have appeared semi-naturally), 72P18 (Appears to hassle queen bees, also a loaf hassler.), 52P12 (4 long barges hassling 4 R-pentominoes. Notably, the R-pentomino in this rule lasts for only 5 generations.), 32P18 (four blocks hassling an unknown active region), 24P24 (A group of 4 phi sparks hassling each other, also a flipper), 30P24 (A flipper), 44P29 (Has four transparent blocks), 40P13 (4 crotchetsparks hassled by 4 tubs and a block),
and 38P16 (Four toads hassling two loaves),
104P142-based agar, which can be stabilised with ships. (click above to open LifeViewer)
Spaceships
Of particular note is the fact that neither the glider nor any of the xWSSes work in Grounded Life (all of them die off), giving the rule its name. No known spaceships work in both Life and Grounded Life, and it has been proven by Keith Amling that no c/2, c/3 or 2c/4 spaceships work in both Life and Grounded Life, not even sharing a single phase. The most common spaceship according to Catagolue is the glider 3736.
Known spaceship speeds are c/2o, c/3o, c/4o, c/5o, c/6o, 2c/5o, c/4d and c/5d.
The three smallest spaceships in Pseudo Life also work.
x = 7, y = 4, rule = B35/S23
2b3o$bo3bo$o2bo2bo$3ob3o!
#C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]
#C [[ THUMBNAIL THUMBSIZE 4 ZOOM 24 HEIGHT 500 Y -4 THEME Book STARTFROM 10 ]]
13P5H2V0 (glider 3736) (Robert Wainwright, 1994) (click above to open LifeViewer) Catagolue: here
x = 7, y = 7, rule = B35/S23
2bo$b3o$o3bo$bo2bo$3b2obo$6bo$4bobo!
#C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]
#C [[ THUMBNAIL THUMBSIZE 4 ZOOM 24 HEIGHT 500 Y -2 THEME Book STARTFROM 6 ]]
14P3H1V0 (glider 4793) (Nathan Thompson, 1994) (click above to open LifeViewer) Catagolue: here
x = 7, y = 7, rule = B35/S23
3bo$b2ob2o$o2bo2bo$obobobo$3bo$bo3bo$bobobo!
#C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]
#C [[ THUMBNAIL THUMBSIZE 4 ZOOM 24 HEIGHT 500 Y -2 THEME Book STARTFROM 4 ]]
18P2H1V0 (glider 4716) (Nathan Thompson, 1994) (click above to open LifeViewer) Catagolue: here
x = 7, y = 7, rule = B35/S23
o3b2o6bo$2ob4o5bo$o5b2o2b5o$3bo3b3obo$3bob2ob2obo$5b3o$6b2o!
#C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]
#C [[ THUMBNAIL THUMBSIZE 4 ZOOM 24 HEIGHT 500 Y -2 THEME Book STARTFROM 4 ]]
27P4H1V0 (glider 13284) (Nathan Thompson, 1994) (click above to open LifeViewer) Catagolue: here
x = 7, y = 7, rule = B35/S23
2bo$o2bo$o2b4ob2o$bo4bo$2bo3bo$3b2obo3bo$8bob3o$8b2o$10bo2bo$9bo3bo$9bo$9bo4bo$10bo$11b3o!
#C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]
#C [[ THUMBNAIL THUMBSIZE 4 ZOOM 24 HEIGHT 500 Y 0 THEME Book STARTFROM 4 ]]
As of late 2023, there is an ongoing search for spaceships that work in both Life and Grounded Life, as none are known yet. Such searches have had no results as of July 2025.
Puffers
There is a naturally occurring orthogonal glide-symmetric c/2 puffer with period 136, leaving three blinkers in a half-interchange formation and two blocks every 68 ticks. Combining two or more puffers can give other puffers and spaceships.[3][4] The puffer engine also works in Pseudo Life (B357/S238) (where it becomes a p248 puffer). As of 2023, all known natural infinite growth relies on this puffer.
On September 10, 2021, FWKnightship posted a 24c/48 siderake emitting 2c/5 spaceships.[5]
A semi-natural p32 spaceship based on this puffer, using two engines. (click above to open LifeViewer) Catagolue: here
Beehive/block reburnable fuse
One of the most useful reactions is the following reburnableblock fuse, in which a beehive spark interacts with a chain of blocks, moving it further down the chain. It moves at a speed of 3c/4 orthogonal and has period 4.[6]
The beehive/block fuse (click above to open LifeViewer)
Once the beehive reaches the end, it will reverse direction while shortening the chain, and will eventually annihilate it given enough time. This can be stopped with a pond:[7]
A beehive followed by n blocks turns into two vertically spaced blocks in 2n2+23n+423 generations if n ≡ 2 (mod 3), and is otherwise a diehard lasting 2n2 + 23n + 55 if n%3 == 0 else 5233 generations.
These chains can interact in different ways to form logic gates.[8]
A collection of beehive/block fuse reactions linked to each other. (click above to open LifeViewer)
Alternatively, a blinker following a pre-beehive also allows for a clean ignition of the block fuse, although different circuitry is needed. Similarly to the reburnable form, it moves at a speed of 3c/4 and has period 4. It also produces corner dots.[9]
Converters. The left one converts from clean to reburnable ignition, while the right one converts from reburnable to clean ignition. (click above to open LifeViewer)
Change in frequency, stabilisation time and evolutionary sequences
From the same random starting conditions, Grounded Life usually settles into much fewer objects than in Life due to the fact that many life evolutionary sequences are sparks in this rule. It also stabilises ten times faster than Life on average.
The honey farm sequence, which evolves into 4 blinkers in a traffic light-like formation with a tub inside, is much rarer in Grounded Life due to the fact that the only 7-cell predecessor that still works is the line of seven, which is much rarer than the other predecessors.
The traffic light sequence is considerably rarer in Grounded Life due to the T-tetromino's disappearance, so the next most common predecessor that works is the X-pentomino, which is rarer.
On August 3, 2023, Anivec published a Rule 110 unit stripe based on the aforementioned beehive/block reburnable fuse, proving the rule's Turing-completeness. [11]
Soup search was performed using a modified version of apgsearch, yielding uncommon objects such as the c/3o spaceship (Glider 4793) as early as 2014.[12]
The b35s23/C1 census accumulated 375 million objects in April 2015,[c 2]
169 billion objects in October 2017,[c 3]
519 billion objects in July 2021,[c 4]
561 billion objects in October 2021,[c 5]
1.69 trillion objects in February 2023,[c 6]
1.72 trillion objects in August 2023,[c 7]
and 2.9 trillion objects in November 2024.[c 8]