6 ms·

Me: oh cool, this is interesting, I don’t quite understand what exactly that means, let me read the thread to learn more… The thread: > Replacing ECCA1 by vers

Me: oh cool, this is interesting, I don’t quite understand what exactly that means, let me read the thread to learn more… The thread: > Replacing ECCA1 by version with step after the direction change could save something like 1% of the ecca1 bits size. Compiling agnosticized program instead of fixed lane program by ecca1 could save something like 1% as well (just guesses). Build of smaller ECCA1 would shorten binary portion, but it would be hardly seen in the ship size. > Using agnosticized recipe in the fuse portion would definitely reduce its size. Better cordership seed and better salvo for gpse90 would help… Dear lord I had no idea there’s this much jargon in the game of life community. Gonna be reading the wiki for hours

falcor84 10mo ago
Their free book "Conway’s Game of Life: Mathematics and Construction" is a great starting point - https://conwaylife.com/book/conway_life_book.pdf https://conwaylife.com/book/conway_life_book.pdf
- jancurn 10mo ago
  You sent me down a rabbit hole: https://esolangs.org/wiki/APGsembly https://esolangs.org/wiki/APGsembly is mentioned in the book
  - falcor84 10mo ago
    And for a related rabbit hole where people actually went all the to the bottom, there's of course the full implementation of Tetris in GoL which was nerd-sniped by a CodeGolf challenge https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/11880/build-a-working-game-of-tetris-in-conways-game-of-life https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/11880/build-a-w...
    - idiotsecant 10mo ago
      Sometimes you see something that makes you wonder how it is that you get to exist in the same world as people with the drive and intelligence to do truly awesome ( in the original sense) thing like this. I am proud of myself when the compiler works on the first try.
      - taneq 10mo ago
        I think it's awesome that they can do this amazing fun esoteric stuff, but at the same time a small part of me thinks maybe they need to be doing something more meaningful in the real world.
        kitku 10mo ago
        This small part is what makes broken people. Whoever reads this, go have fun! :)
        taneq 10mo ago
        You know what? I think I will.
        bibimsz 10mo ago
        the only thing that's meaningful is having fun, everything else is a waste of time
        idiotsecant 10mo ago
        I wonder, what would that be, that thing that is more meaningful? I would make the case that, zoomed out far enough, nothing at all is meaningful, so you might as well make beautiful things, and this is a delightfully beautiful thing.
IncreasePosts 10mo ago
Once a year or so I find myself on those forums and I'm always astounded how many people there are that dedicate massive amounts of time and brain power to this.
- tombert 10mo ago
  I think it appeals to the same itch that languages like Brainfuck scratch. There's something exceedingly interesting about how you can model complexity with something extremely simple. Brainfuck is fun because it forces you to think extremely low level, because ultimately it is basically just a raw implementation of a Turing machine. I wouldn't want to write a big program in it, but it is fun to think about how you might express a complicated algorithm with it. Similarly with CGOL, it is really interesting to see how far you can stretch really simple rules into something really complex. I've written CGOL dozens of times, it's a common project that I do to "break in" a language I've learned, since it's not completely trivial but it's simple enough to not be frustrating, and I completely understand why math/computability-theory folks find it something to dedicate brain power to.
  - __del__ 10mo ago
    for those who think brainfuck is too pedestrian, have a browse through the esolang wiki: https://esolangs.org/wiki/Language_list https://esolangs.org/wiki/Language_list
    - tombert 10mo ago
      I have no idea how I'd be able to pitch this to a university (or even who I could pitch it to), but I would absolutely love to teach a computability course using Brainfuck as the language, just to really show students how low-level logic can be. I would probably need to find a similar language with a different name though.
      - jachee 10mo ago
        How about Assembly?
culi 10mo ago
That's because it's not "game of life jargon", it's "cellular automata" jargon. Which is a field of math and comes along with a bunch of math jargon from related fields.
- dooglius 10mo ago
  I searched several of these terms and they are all specifically jargon of game of life enthusiasts, (i.e. search reaults are all on fansites related to game of life) not general cellular automata jargon.
  - IAmBroom 10mo ago
    I assume there's fanfic shipping of automata... (If you don't recognize that use of "shipping", don't google it at work.)
    - permo-w 10mo ago
      short for relationship
    - eru 10mo ago
      https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Shipping https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Shipping should be reasonably safe for work. As long as you can avoid getting sucked in to an all-day wiki bender.
  - HTHThreee 10mo ago
    conwaylife.com isn't just for GOL, although it is the main subject, there is an Other Cellular Automata forum. also it's not really a fansite, it's a bit more academic than what would be considered a "fansite".
- pepinator 10mo ago
  mmmh I don't think so. I've read several papers on cellular automata and I don't recognize the terms

falcor84 10mo ago

Their free book "Conway’s Game of Life: Mathematics and Construction" is a great starting point - https://conwaylife.com/book/conway_life_book.pdf https://conwaylife.com/book/conway_life_book.pdf

jancurn 10mo ago
You sent me down a rabbit hole: https://esolangs.org/wiki/APGsembly https://esolangs.org/wiki/APGsembly is mentioned in the book
- falcor84 10mo ago
  And for a related rabbit hole where people actually went all the to the bottom, there's of course the full implementation of Tetris in GoL which was nerd-sniped by a CodeGolf challenge https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/11880/build-a-working-game-of-tetris-in-conways-game-of-life https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/11880/build-a-w...
  - idiotsecant 10mo ago
    Sometimes you see something that makes you wonder how it is that you get to exist in the same world as people with the drive and intelligence to do truly awesome ( in the original sense) thing like this. I am proud of myself when the compiler works on the first try.
    - taneq 10mo ago
      I think it's awesome that they can do this amazing fun esoteric stuff, but at the same time a small part of me thinks maybe they need to be doing something more meaningful in the real world.
      - kitku 10mo ago
        This small part is what makes broken people. Whoever reads this, go have fun! :)
        taneq 10mo ago
        You know what? I think I will.
      - bibimsz 10mo ago
        the only thing that's meaningful is having fun, everything else is a waste of time
      - idiotsecant 10mo ago
        I wonder, what would that be, that thing that is more meaningful? I would make the case that, zoomed out far enough, nothing at all is meaningful, so you might as well make beautiful things, and this is a delightfully beautiful thing.

IncreasePosts 10mo ago

Once a year or so I find myself on those forums and I'm always astounded how many people there are that dedicate massive amounts of time and brain power to this.

tombert 10mo ago
I think it appeals to the same itch that languages like Brainfuck scratch. There's something exceedingly interesting about how you can model complexity with something extremely simple. Brainfuck is fun because it forces you to think extremely low level, because ultimately it is basically just a raw implementation of a Turing machine. I wouldn't want to write a big program in it, but it is fun to think about how you might express a complicated algorithm with it. Similarly with CGOL, it is really interesting to see how far you can stretch really simple rules into something really complex. I've written CGOL dozens of times, it's a common project that I do to "break in" a language I've learned, since it's not completely trivial but it's simple enough to not be frustrating, and I completely understand why math/computability-theory folks find it something to dedicate brain power to.
- __del__ 10mo ago
  for those who think brainfuck is too pedestrian, have a browse through the esolang wiki: https://esolangs.org/wiki/Language_list https://esolangs.org/wiki/Language_list
  - tombert 10mo ago
    I have no idea how I'd be able to pitch this to a university (or even who I could pitch it to), but I would absolutely love to teach a computability course using Brainfuck as the language, just to really show students how low-level logic can be. I would probably need to find a similar language with a different name though.
    - jachee 10mo ago
      How about Assembly?

culi 10mo ago

That's because it's not "game of life jargon", it's "cellular automata" jargon. Which is a field of math and comes along with a bunch of math jargon from related fields.

dooglius 10mo ago
I searched several of these terms and they are all specifically jargon of game of life enthusiasts, (i.e. search reaults are all on fansites related to game of life) not general cellular automata jargon.
- IAmBroom 10mo ago
  I assume there's fanfic shipping of automata... (If you don't recognize that use of "shipping", don't google it at work.)
  - permo-w 10mo ago
    short for relationship
  - eru 10mo ago
    https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Shipping https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Shipping should be reasonably safe for work. As long as you can avoid getting sucked in to an all-day wiki bender.
- HTHThreee 10mo ago
  conwaylife.com isn't just for GOL, although it is the main subject, there is an Other Cellular Automata forum. also it's not really a fansite, it's a bit more academic than what would be considered a "fansite".
pepinator 10mo ago
mmmh I don't think so. I've read several papers on cellular automata and I don't recognize the terms