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Here is the configuration of live and dead cells, surrounded by an infinite background of grey “don’t care” cells: What are "don't care cells"? I thoug
by mg 5y ago
Here is the configuration of live and
dead cells, surrounded by an infinite
background of grey “don’t care” cells:
What are "don't care cells"? I thought cells in Conway's Game of Life are either alive or dead?
- danielleconway 5y agoThe grey cells marked "don't care" can be on or off, and the resulting pattern will still have the property that it must exist from the start. Some of those said "don't care" cells can also be turned on to form a stable configuration, which is additionally nice.
- jacquesm 5y agoRelated or coincidence?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- cesaref 5y agoThis is just defining the edge of the pattern they are discussion. They are saying 'if you see this pattern with any surrounding cells at any point T, then the given cells must also match at time T-1'. If you look at the pattern, you'll see that some of the cells on the edge do not have 2 or 3 neighbours, so if you place this pattern in isolation in a field of empty cells, it won't survive, but there will be multiple possible ways to make this pattern survive (so a choice of cells to make the edge cells add to 2 or 3)
- mg 5y agoOh! So if you ever walk around in the wonderful world of Conway and encounter this pattern, then it will have existed since the beginning of time. But most probably it will disappear right now because your presence will disturb the stabilizing patterns around it.
- NAHWheatCracker 5y ago"Don't care" cells is a designation saying the state of those cells doesn't impact the prior state requirement that they wanted to prove.