Who, me? If Cthulhu had deigned to make an appearance a few months sooner, it looks like my conjecture would have lasted a lot longer. It's all because I kept forgetting to feed the shoggoth, no doubt.calcyman wrote:Cthulhu is asymmetric, has an odd population, and is markedly larger than the next-largest natural still-lifes (which have 42 cells). I would be interested to see what Dave Greene makes of this...
The trigger sequence only needs two small active regions -- a Herschel plus a pre-honeyfarm or pre-traffic light -- but I guess I can see why it hasn't happened to turn up before now:
Code: Select all
x = 29, y = 60, rule = B3/S23
10b2o$9bo2bo9bo$10b2o9bo$16b2o3bo$10b2o3bobo3b2o$9bo2bo2bobo$10b2o3b2o
2$10b2o$9bo2bo$10b2o7$14bo$13bobo10b3o$bo5b3o4bo$obo3bo3bo11bo$o2bobo
5bo4b3o3bo$b2o3bo3bo11bo$7b3o4bo$13bobo$14bo2$22b3o$23bo$21b3o9$26b3o$
14bo$8b2o3b3o6bo$b3o3bo2bob2ob2o5bo$8b2o3b3o6bo$14bo7$23bo$22b3o$21b2o
bo$24b2o$24b2o$24b2o$21bo$21b2o$22bobo$22bo!
Also the likelihood that a new highest bit count will be odd rather than even seems to be heading gradually toward 50% (because as the bit-count goes up, the probability gradually decreases that a Big Enough(TM) empty space will be available for a Big Enough symmetric still life to stabilize, before something asymmetrical touches it and modifies it.)