Talk:Phoenix

Spaceships not phoenixes?

Spaceships can definitely be phoenixes. Just look at this Seeds (2/) spaceship:

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If it means specifically for 23/3, then it should say so. Correct? --Axaj 02:25, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

It indeed means specifically for 23/3 (as well as the comment about period 3 oscillators). The general rule-of-thumb as been that, unless clarification is given, any statement made in LifeWiki is about the standard Life rules. Of course, I won't raise any objections if someone feels like adding a note that other rules (such as seeds) can have phoenix spaceships and whatnot. Nathaniel 03:31, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Tacit assumptions seem to be fairly common, but although this Wiki seems to be devoted to J. H. Conway's Life, other cellular automata seem to be creeping into the repertoire. This is probably a Good Thing, because the general context illuminates the particulars of Life, nor need it necessarily mean that the Wiki would lose its present focus. Should another rule grow sufficiently in importance and interest, it would undoubtedly acquire its own Wiki. In the meantime, why not keep a veriety of viewpoints? And without being unduly repetitious, indicate the limits on seemingly absolute statements?

Speaking of pedantry, how about either curtailing or amplifying pronouncements such as "a period three oscillator cannot be a Phoenix." Even if someone is accused of having said so, citing a reference containing the proof or sketching out the reasons would surely be helpful. And how about that business of evolving into period 2? Obviously the field could be sprinkled with Instant Vanishers (wouldn't that be a nice category?), but what other, less trivial, evolutions culminating in period 2 are known? Could gliders come along and zap the ends of a barberpole?

All seminatural phoenices on Catagolue

As found by my simulator on a backup of b3s23/all-soups/xp2 today (do not click unless you would like to download it, to avoid unnecessary strain generating the csv): 16*16 cross-shaped, Phoenix 1, fourfold knightwise-skewed one, twofold knightwise-skewed one, eightfold large one, fourfold knightwise-skewed three-segment one, four conjoined small ones, 20*20 plus-shaped.

Then next in the csv of xp2's sorted by volatility, there are two almost-phoenices with joints containing single stator cells and r-pentomino-shaped footprints (as appear in Lei), the clover-looking one and the one with joints on the outside. Then these joints appear again in this thing which supports something like a barberpole with turns in its rotor, this thing with barberpoles joined by the stator, a smaller variant, a plus symbol of phoenix components with r-joints, then the appearance of the w-pentomino-shaped joint in this one, then a great many more of the same volatility (but varying in size until this large and cool one), then another conjoined barberpole variant and eight loops with eight stators, then I gave up on being exhaustive but liked the smaller turning barberpole, the butterfly-shaped one, the finite squaredance stabilisation (!!), this mod-1 one (that flips in y XOR y), this unnamed agar stabilisation (!!), this one with by-flops-looking things, this coil-shaped one, this dense one and this one with stationary gliders, then I stopped because I realised I would be here forever. DroneBetter (talk) 22:43, 21 December 2022 (UTC)