The afterword is quite knowledgeable in summarizing work since the original publication. I am uncertain if Poundstone talked to anyone in the community or just did his own research online. Anyone know?
I thought the above might be of general interest. What follows is personal and rambling, so feel free to stop here.
I was also surprised to see (right above the spacefiller) a 1x39 pattern of 28 cells that grows infinitely. Google books has the page in question. https://books.google.com/books?id=0FHqb ... &q&f=false
I vaguely remembered searching for this pattern (described here) to answer a question posed on the Life mailing list:
Code: Select all
x = 39, y = 1, rule = B3/S23
8ob5o3b3o6b7ob5o!
For those who want to "amaze your friends" with about as much effort as learning a phone number, you can memorize this and enter it into Golly or other viewer by hand. Or maybe it would work as a bar bet... whoa! infinite growth from one line; challenge anyone else to duplicate the feat. (Sorry that was the rambling part; I used to be able to enter the p30 glider gun by hand fairly fast, but this is an easier trick to teach.)