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> I think a reproducing pattern would be a pretty significant accomplishment in itself. Reproducing patterns are relatively common now e.g. [0], but the whole

• andrewla 4y ago
  From reading this, it appears that the pattern is not self-replicating in the sense that it can spawn a generation of descendants. Rather it just makes a copy of itself and then dies. The pattern in the video in this article, on the other hand, can produce multiple viable offspring (although not always, as there is non-determinism). I am not aware of any such patterns in the Game of Life.
  • svnt 4y ago
    My understanding is that self-replication (whether singular as in the above article from ten years ago or multiple) in alife is a solved problem, but that it (being based in deterministic processes with pseudo-random seeding) does not lead to the continuation of the formation of diverse forms of life. The unique piece here is I believe the increased access to indeterminate state or stochasticity. I can’t speak specifically to whether those patterns exist in the game of life.
    • andrewla 4y ago
      Alife is a huge field, and systems as old as Tierra demonstrate self-replication. The concept by itself is not revolutionary, but I am not aware of any examples specifically in Conway's game of life. The question for me is more whether simpler Turing-complete rule systems can accomplish this on space-scales and time-scales that can give us insights into the nature of emergent behavior in evolved systems.