Search found 28 matches

by igblan
May 14th, 2022, 6:53 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: NewLifeCA discussion thread
Replies: 24
Views: 6269

Re: NewLifeCA discussion thread

Very interesting dynamics in the asymmetric branch with math.randomseed(41159898) 129m ticks to stability. But fairly early on an upstream glider on the NE branch collides with the "flare" sent out by the ark, neither destroying nor neutering it, but causing a "lump" to appear which silts up the riv...
by igblan
May 11th, 2022, 3:47 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: NewLifeCA discussion thread
Replies: 24
Views: 6269

Re: NewLifeCA discussion thread

Back into the fray. Dave Greene recommended I post this stuff here. I was inspired by the D8_4 collidoscopes in the Methuselah-ish Symmetric Soups thread, mentioned by Dave in a recent NewLifeCA post. Yesterday and today I've been investigating (watching) what happens if you run the 64m-tick pattern...
by igblan
November 24th, 2013, 8:36 pm
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Geminoid Challenge
Replies: 166
Views: 513914

Re: Geminoid Challenge

I was prompted into action today by an email from Alex Bellos, who is publishing a recreational maths book soon which includes a chapter on Life. Here is my reply, with his original email at the bottom. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Chapman" <redacted> To: "Alex Bellos" <redacted> Sent: M...
by igblan
May 19th, 2013, 7:21 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Seeds of Destruction: A Puzzle Game
Replies: 42
Views: 103819

Re: Seeds of Destruction: A Puzzle Game

There is a serious bug in the latest version relating to savegames, found by Dave Greene. If you add more than one branch to the exploration tree immediately below a puzzle - ie if you try more than one initial seed - and exit and restart the game, only half of the branches for that puzzle will be l...
by igblan
May 12th, 2013, 10:55 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Seeds of Destruction: A Puzzle Game
Replies: 42
Views: 103819

Re: Seeds of Destruction: A Puzzle Game

Here at last is a new ALPHA version of the Seeds of Destruction puzzle game. The main change is that progress is automatically saved when you exit the game, and reloaded when you start it again. Read the in-game help (? button) for more information. This version includes Dave Greene's Demonoid chall...
by igblan
May 5th, 2013, 4:09 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Seeds of Destruction: A Puzzle Game
Replies: 42
Views: 103819

Re: Seeds of Destruction: A Puzzle Game

It's nice when you get a chance to play your own game. Here's a good beginning to a Silver cleanup with a glider and 6 seeds destroying 7 stilll lifes. Less than 30 minutes' work. The glider which heads NE to destroy an eater could be further perturbed near it to do more work. I am yet to exploit th...
by igblan
May 4th, 2013, 4:27 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Seeds of Destruction: A Puzzle Game
Replies: 42
Views: 103819

Re: Seeds of Destruction: A Puzzle Game

Oh, wait. You probably want to see a screen shot. I am a lousy salesman.

Image

Cheers, Paul
by igblan
May 4th, 2013, 4:19 pm
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Seeds of Destruction: A Puzzle Game
Replies: 42
Views: 103819

Seeds of Destruction: A Puzzle Game

********************** MODERATOR EDIT: See the latest version by Sphenocorona for various bug fixes and improvements. -- dvgrn ********************** Today I am releasing an alpha version of a Java program I have been working on, with Dave Greene's input and advice, to help find ways of creating sel...
by igblan
April 26th, 2013, 11:17 am
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Just the place for a Snark!
Replies: 54
Views: 116989

Re: Just the place for a Snark!

Adding two boat reflectors and a block permits the easy destruction of the Snark by a single glider. The block can be removed to allow the escaping glider to start further destruction elsewhere in a larger pattern. x = 63, y = 57, rule = B3/S23 bo$2bo$3o20$38bo$37bobo$37b2o21bo$60bobo$60b2o9$57b2o$5...
by igblan
April 25th, 2013, 11:38 pm
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Just the place for a Snark!
Replies: 54
Views: 116989

Re: Just the place for a Snark!

Here's a truly ugly G->H converter, based on the old G->B6+R converter, using the new reflector. x = 99, y = 75, rule = B3/S23 17boo$17boo3$15boo$15boo$bboo$3bo74bo$3bobo70b3o$4boo69bo$oo73boo$oo7$ 13boo$13boo29boo$44boo51bo$96bobo$96bobo$33bo63bo$32bobo$32boo$boo38b oo32boo$obo38bo20boo11boo$bbo39b...
by igblan
April 25th, 2013, 8:59 pm
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Just the place for a Snark!
Replies: 54
Views: 116989

Re: Just the place for a Snark!

Very nicely done!

Cheers, Paul
by igblan
June 16th, 2010, 5:19 pm
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Universal Constructor Based Spaceship
Replies: 70
Views: 464382

Re: Universal Constructor Based Spaceship

New Scientist article:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... lator.html

Cheers, Paul
by igblan
June 4th, 2010, 12:31 am
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas
Replies: 32
Views: 58048

Re: Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas

Here is a sketch of a possible rearrangement of the reflector arrays described in idea (2), reducing them in number from six to four, at the cost of using slightly bigger reflectors to duplicate the signal at the top. https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/hrCzhmi6n1QdMXvZXZvPeSdyzMl1ZyB0a6dbTKOIu9bcL0F4...
by igblan
June 2nd, 2010, 4:35 pm
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas
Replies: 32
Views: 58048

Re: Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas

HartmutHolzwart wrote:Is there a realistic chance to see an implementation of som of those ideas in the near future?
I am actively working on a Python program to search for a solution to (1b).

Cheers, Paul
by igblan
May 31st, 2010, 8:08 am
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas
Replies: 32
Views: 58048

Re: Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas

Mostly to calcyman. My understanding is that the Gemini tape is not really p576. Additional delays have to be introduced occasionally in order to avoid collisions in crossing streams. Reducing the minimum separation of tape gliders to 512 would not address that: the tape would remain globally asynch...
by igblan
May 27th, 2010, 7:31 pm
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas
Replies: 32
Views: 58048

Re: Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas

My very next request was going to be adding a little code to Andrew's constructions programs to gather some stats. ... saving about 4% of the length. I am oddly pleased that my 3%-5% estimate for (1a) was not inaccurate, although of course changes and/or improvements to the shotguns might yet dwarf ...
by igblan
May 27th, 2010, 8:13 am
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas
Replies: 32
Views: 58048

Re: Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas

Hartmut: I see you found this topic anyway. I am mostly pursuing (1b) for now. To this end, I have already written a Python wrapper for RLife7.dll, the "agile" (it's the new buzzword) Life engine I used for Glue, which is very good for running small patterns and has built-in code for guessing when a...
by igblan
May 23rd, 2010, 6:53 am
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Stable technology
Replies: 7
Views: 5673

Re: Stable technology

I might admit to the charge that the MRM is not "practical", but nevertheless it is a UC implemented in P30. :)

Cheers, Paul
by igblan
May 23rd, 2010, 6:48 am
Forum: General Discussion
Topic: Martin Gardner
Replies: 3
Views: 3240

Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner died on Saturday, aged 95. He originally brought the Game of Life to the wider world in 1970, in his regular Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. http://www.ibiblio.org/lifepatterns/october1970.html My father showed me an article about Life in the London Sunday Times shor...
by igblan
May 23rd, 2010, 6:39 am
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Stable technology
Replies: 7
Views: 5673

Re: Stable technology

calcyman wrote:The only infinite tapes implemented so far use stable technology.
Not true. The original MRM was implemented using P30 technology, based on Dean Hickerson's Sliding Block Memory. It's all I knew at the time.

Cheers, Paul
by igblan
May 22nd, 2010, 9:35 am
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas
Replies: 32
Views: 58048

Shrinking Gemini: Four Ideas

Here is a summary of four ideas for shrinking Andrew Wade's constructor-based knightship Gemini. (1a) Move the BLACK and WHITE constructor-elbow output gliders closer together [This idea was originated by Dave Greene and calcyman.] The diagonal spacing between the BLACK and WHITE elbow output glider...
by igblan
May 20th, 2010, 2:08 pm
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Universal Constructor Based Spaceship
Replies: 70
Views: 464382

Re: Universal Constructor Based Spaceship

calcyman wrote: It's not redundancy; it allows the same instructions to serve both ends of Gemini. A stroke of genius, in my opinion! THE stroke of genius. The 1% inspiration. But of course Gemini saw the light of day because of the 99% perspiration that came after. I salute both equally! Cheers, Paul
by igblan
May 20th, 2010, 10:43 am
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Universal Constructor Based Spaceship
Replies: 70
Views: 464382

Re: Universal Constructor Based Spaceship

As Adam says here http://pentadecathlon.com/lifeNews/2010/05/oblique_life_spaceship_created.html#more : Amazingly, Andrew managed this feat independently, despite the fact that he had access to limited knowledge and resources. In fact, that may have actually helped him -- he was not familiar with, a...
by igblan
May 19th, 2010, 10:46 am
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Universal Constructor Based Spaceship
Replies: 70
Views: 464382

Re: Universal Constructor Based Spaceship

The "shoulder" of the construction arm, which fires the four kinds of construction salvo, was deliberately built using "Spartan" Herschel technology, ie using Herschel components constructed solely from blocks, beehives, tubs, boats and eaters. This was in the expectation of minimizing the complexit...
by igblan
May 19th, 2010, 10:18 am
Forum: Patterns
Topic: Universal Constructor Based Spaceship
Replies: 70
Views: 464382

Re: Universal Constructor Based Spaceship

Andrew, My heartiest congratulations. Herschel tracks are appearing as if from nowhere! Much of my desire to make a pattern like this was simply to see that happening. It is as satisfactory to watch as I ever imagined. The beauty is in the simplicity of the design. Using a single arm producing slow ...