Conway’s Game of Life

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Life Lexicon

This Life lexicon is compiled by Stephen A. Silver from various sources and may be copied, modified and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence. See the original credit page for all credits and the original download location. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Semi-cenark

Either of two semi-Snark variants discovered by Tanner Jacobi in November 2017. The name is due to the initial converter, which produces a century output for every two input gliders. The minimum safe repeat time is 43 ticks for the smaller initial catalyst shown in CC semi-cenark and CP semi-cenark, or 42 ticks with the slightly larger catalyst variant shown below. There is also overclocking possible at period 36, 38, or 39. The reset glider can be followed immediately by a new trigger glider, as shown below, so the minimum repeat time for an intermittent stream of gliders is only 50 ticks.

Game of Life pattern ’semi-cenark’

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.

Each cell with two or three neighbors survives.

For a space that is empty or unpopulated:

Each cell with three neighbors becomes populated.

More information

Video’s about the Game of Life

Stephen Hawkings The Meaning of Life (John Conway's Game of Life segment)
The rules are explained in Stephen Hawkings’ documentary The Meaning of Life
Inventing Game of Life (John Conway) - Numberphile
John Conway himself talks about the Game of Life

Interesting articles about John Conway

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