User:PK22/Draft:Notability
So you have discovered a pattern (or think you have discovered it), but you are unsure if it is notable.
Is this new?
If you think you have discovered a new pattern, it might be advisable to search and see if it is known. Some places you can check include:
- Jason Summers' pattern collection (jslife), which contains many patterns discovered before 2013.
- LifeWiki - if a pattern has been discovered and is notable enough, it probably has an article.
- The conwaylife.com forums - you can search for keywords related to your pattern which might be used in its description.
- Catagolue - you can go to this page and paste the RLE of your pattern into the box. If it has occurred in any census, or the page has comments, it is probably known.
Common sense
Sometimes, if you are unsure if a pattern or reaction is known, you can use common sense. Life has been investigated for 55 years at the time of writing, so if a reaction seems deceptively simple or a pattern seems small, it might well be known.
What makes a pattern notable?
The notability of a pattern in a CA context could stem from multiple factors. A newly discovered pattern could be notable if it, for example:
- Solves an open problem about Conway's Game of Life or other cellular automata - e.g Unsynthesizable still life.
- Is the first pattern with a particular property - e.g Gemini was the first universal constructor based spaceship.
- Exhibits unusual and/or potentially useful behaviour - e.g edge-repair spaceship 1 is able to repair some damage to itself.
- Could be useful in larger engineered patterns - e.g the 34P14 shuttle's duoplet sparks are frequently used in hasslers.
- Is smaller than all known patterns of its type - e.g the spider was smaller than all known c/5 orthogonal spaceships when it was discovered.
These are not the only things that make a pattern notable.
What is not notable?
The following are not considered notable, often because it is easy to produce hundreds or thousands of examples.
- A 'new' still life - it is easy to create still lifes, and all strict and pseudo still lifes with up to 34 cells have been enumerated. An exception is if the still life has an interesting usage as a catalyst - e.g regenerative loop or chucklebait.
- A methuselah with a bounding box exceeding 20x20, or lasting fewer than 20000 generations. The bounding box requirement exists because otherwise you could simply have a glider aimed at an arbitrarily distant constellation. Even if your methuselah fits the criteria, it is still not really notable unless it has some other aspect that makes it interesting, or it has a lifespan exceeding the largest known, which is 52513 generations at the time of writing. Data from Catagolue suggests that there are about 193 unvigintillion (1.93×1068) methuselae with a lifespan exceeding 25000 generations in a 16x16 bounding box, even after accounting for rotation and reflection. Some objects like the U-turner are notable for being common, not for their lifespan.
- An alternative stabilisation for a reaction, unless it is smaller than the smallest currently known or has some other advantage - the second and third patterns are not notable:
| A buckaroo can reflect a glider 90 degrees. (click above to open LifeViewer) |
| This oscillator can also reflect a glider 90 degrees, but it is simply a more complicated way to do the same reaction. (click above to open LifeViewer) |
| You can always make things worse. (click above to open LifeViewer) |
Here is an example where an alternate stabilisation would be notable:
| Two Snark variants using different 31.4 variants as catalysts. The right one has slightly more clearance - a glider can pass right by it, but damages the left catalyst if a glider approaches on the same lane. (click above to open LifeViewer) |
What is notable?
The following are almost always considered extremely notable:
- A new elementary spaceship, if it is smaller than all known spaceships of its speed (or is the first spaceship of its speed), is an oblique spaceship, or does something interesting or cool.
- A new oscillator with unusual properties or reactions, especially if it is relatively small.
- The first pattern of a given type in CGoL - there are many types of patterns that can exist in CGoL thanks to universal construction and the 0E0P metacell, but have not yet been explicitly constructed.
- Any pattern that answers an open problem.
Also notable
The following are generally considered notable, but not on the same level as the above:
- A new oscillator, provided it is not easy to find lots of similar oscillators. For example, you could easily use software like JLS to find thousands of small-ish p3 oscillators, but finding, say, another p80 honey farm hassler is much more difficult.
- A glider synthesis for a previously unsynthesised pattern, or a glider synthesis that is cheaper than the cheapest one currently known.
- A new catalyst/catalysis with interesting properties.
- A new gun which is either smaller (in bounding box) than the previously smallest one for its period, or that has an interesting/unique mechanism.
- A new conduit or a modification to an old one that improves some aspect of it (e.g constructability, repeat time, bounding box).
- A one-glider seed for an object that is either the only one known or the smallest/simplest one known.
Where can I share my discoveries?
If your discovery is notable under the above criteria, or you believe it to be notable, find an appropriate forum thread and post it, along with a brief description of what makes it notable if necessary.
If you are unsure if your discovery is new and/or notable, then post it in the Thread for your Unsure Discoveries.