Any still life that has the ability to interact with certain
patterns without suffering any permanent damage. (If it doesn't
suffer even temporary damage then it may be referred to as a rock.)
The eater1 is a very common eater, and the term "eater" is often
used specifically for this object. Other eaters include eater2,
eater3, eater4, and eater5, and many hundreds of others are
known. Below is a complex eater found by Dean Hickerson in 1998
using his drsearch program. It takes 25 ticks to recover
after feasting on a glider:
Some common still lifes can act as eaters in some situations,
such as the block, ship, and tub. In fact the block was the
first known eater, being found capable of eating beehives from a
queen bee.
Game of Life Explanation
The Game of Life is not your typical computer game. It is a cellular
automaton, and was invented by Cambridge mathematician John Conway.
This game became widely known when it was mentioned in an article
published by Scientific American in 1970. It consists of a grid of
cells which, based on a few mathematical rules, can live, die or
multiply. Depending on the initial conditions, the cells form various
patterns throughout the course of the game.
Rules
For a space that is populated:
Examples
Each cell with one or no neighbors dies, as if by solitude.
Each cell with four or more neighbors dies, as if by
overpopulation.
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