Catagolue
| Catagolue | |
| Conducted by | Adam P. Goucher |
|---|---|
| Type | Distributed |
| Year(s) | 2015 – 2016 |
| Status | Ongoing |
| Parameters | |
| Universe | Infinite plane |
| Soup size | 16×16 |
| Initial soup density | 0.5 |
| Soups searched | >4,648,355,446,612 |
| Results | |
| Total objects | >101,538,813,013,087 |
| Distinct objects | >86,933 |
Catagolue[note 1] is an ongoing distributed census of naturally occurring ash objects conducted by Adam P. Goucher, started in 2015.
The results are obtained by evolving random soups of size 16×16 with density 0.5 in an infinite planar universe; as of June 23, 2016, more than 4,648,355,446,612 soups were investigated by the census's participants, yielding a total of more than 101,538,813,013,087 objects of 86,933 distinct types. Submissions of new results (called "hauls") are subjected to both statistical tests and peer-review by other participants before being comitted to the census.
Catagolue is primarily fed by apgsearch, including apgnano (apgsearch 2.x) and apgmera (apgsearch 3.x) as well as Aidan F. Pierce's hacked version supporting arbitrary semi-totalistic cellular automata. Each resulting object is identified by apgsearch by its unique apgcode; the Catagolue website gives overviews over the various classes of objects found, and provides further information as well as sample soups for each object.
Notable patterns
A variety of notable natural patterns have been submitted to Catagolue:
- The first known natural occurrence of a nonstandard spaceship was found during alpha testing of apgsearch. The soup, which produced an LWSS on HWSS 1, was submitted to the conwaylife.com forums on August 26, 2014 by Adam P. Goucher.[1] Many other nontrivial spaceship flotillae have since been found.
- The first known natural occurrence of a puffer other than the block-laying or glider-producing switch engine, a p1152 made from two switch engines dubbed the pony express, was found in September 2015.[2] Other objects found by apgsearch in asymmetric soups are smiley, Elkies' p5, phoenix 1, and two occurences of the Coe ship.
- The pufferfish and 112P15 were both discovered in the ash of symmetric soups, and a copperhead emerged from a D2_+2 soup in April 2016 soon after its initial discovery by 'zdr', followed by a second one in June 2016.
Sample soups submittted to Catagolue have also led to cheaper glider syntheses for many patterns, including tumbler, eater 2, and smiley.
Higher symmetries
In addition to asymmetric (C1) soups, Catagolue also collects census data for symmetric soups of the following types:
- C2_1, C2_2, C2_4: 180° (two-fold) rotational symmetry
- C4_1, C4_4: 90° (four-fold) rotational symmetry
- D2_+1, D2_+2: reflectional symmetry along an orthogonal line
- D2_x: reflectional symmetry along a diagonal line
- D4_+1, D4_+2, D4_+4: reflectional symmetry along two perpendicular orthogonal lines
- D4_x1, D4_x4: reflectional symmetry along two perpendicular diagonal lines
- D8_1, D8_4: reflectional symmetry along four orthogonal/diagonal through a common center
In addition, the 8x32 pseudo-symmetry is used for soups of size 8×32 instead of 16×16.
Other rules
Catagolue supports the investigation of arbitrary rules, both totalistic rules and semi-totalistic rules in Hensel notation; in practice, only non-exploding rules can reasonably be investigated.
Limitations
Catagolue does not accept hauls of less than 10,000 soups, or hauls exceeding 1 MiB.
Also see
Notes
- ↑ The name "Catagolue" is an amalgam of "Catalogue" and "GoL" (Game of Life).
References
- ↑ "Re: Thread For Your Accidental Discoveries". Retrieved on June 12, 2016.
- ↑ "Re: Soup search results" (September 28, 2015). Retrieved on June 12, 2016.