4 ms·
What's not often mentioned is that it's possible to build a Turing machine emulator as a Life pattern. That means, courtesy of the Halting Problem, that in gee
by RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
What's not often mentioned is that it's possible to build a Turing machine emulator as a Life pattern. That means, courtesy of the Halting Problem, that in geenral there is no decision procedure for whether a given Life pattern will expand indefinitely, oscillate, reach steady state, or die (a special case of steady state)[1].
[1] It shouldn't, but it always amuses me in crime dramas and news reports when a victim's condition is reported as "stable." After all, "dead" is stable.
- naradaellis 16y agoI read this in a book about maths and biology called "Games of Life" and I was amazed that this had never come up despite reading and playing with the game quite a lot. Very cool. The actual implementation of the machine would run so slow that it is infeasible to do anything with it, but just the possibility is mind-boggling.