4 ms·
Can someone tell me more about how the predefined Game of Life patterns came to be? It it fascinating to me that these have names that people remember. I know t
by hx2a 5y ago
Can someone tell me more about how the predefined Game of Life patterns came to be? It it fascinating to me that these have names that people remember. I know this subject is well researched, but are the researchers finding these things randomly or is there some kind of analytical approach to design patterns that are likely to have a desired result?
- OscarCunningham 5y agoThe earliest patterns were found by simply doodling on the Life board and seeing what happened. Then programs like lifesrc (https://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Lifesrc https://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Lifesrc) were used to bruteforce patterns with specified properties. There are also 'soup searches' in which trillions of random starting conditions are evolved to see what emerges (https://catagolue.hatsya.com/home https://catagolue.hatsya.com/home). Finally, patterns found in these ways can be combined to engineer more complex patterns, including computers.