Pattern of the Year 2016 (Results)
Posted: June 3rd, 2017, 12:05 pm
Dear Cellular Automata folks, I am pleased to announce the winners of the latest Pattern of the Year competition.
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1. Caterloopillars (49 stars)
Previously, all engineered spaceships had speeds that were either fixed (Caterpillar) or adjustable but always very low (Gemini). Caterloopillars have the best of both worlds: their speed is variable, and the fastest ones can travel as quickly as c/4. So far all caterloopillars have been orthogonal, but a project to build one with adjustable slope is underway. By Michael Simkin, David Bell, et. al.
2. Copperhead (47 stars)
In addition to being the first of its speed, this c/10 orthogonal spaceship is so small that it is surprising nobody discovered it before. Its small size allowed the creation of a 22-glider synthesis, and a gun was made soon afterwards. A pseudo-tagalong found a bit later made it possible to create c/10 puffers and rakes. Much of copperhead's fame is due to the mystery surrounding its discovery: it was posted by a newly-joined anonymous user who got inactive afterwards. By zdr, Simon Ekström, et al.
3. Grandfather-less Pattern (39 stars)
"Is there a configuration which has a father but no grandfather?" This is the statement of the grandfather problem, one of the longest-standing open problems in Life, having been unsolved for decades in spite of a $50 prize offer from John Conway Himself in September 1972. It was only this year that the first grandfather-less pattern was discovered using a SAT solver. By mtve.
4. Spaghetti Monster (31 stars)
5. 8-bit Computer (28 stars)
6. Herschel Splitter (19 stars)
7. Bumper (14 stars)
8. New Gun Periods (12 stars)
8. Statorless p5 (12 stars)
10. Aperiodic Tiles (11 stars)
11. Rich's p16 (10 stars)
12. Small GoEs (9 stars)
13. p7 Sparker (6 stars)
13. 15-bit SL Syntheses (6 stars)
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1. Caterloopillars (49 stars)
Previously, all engineered spaceships had speeds that were either fixed (Caterpillar) or adjustable but always very low (Gemini). Caterloopillars have the best of both worlds: their speed is variable, and the fastest ones can travel as quickly as c/4. So far all caterloopillars have been orthogonal, but a project to build one with adjustable slope is underway. By Michael Simkin, David Bell, et. al.
2. Copperhead (47 stars)
In addition to being the first of its speed, this c/10 orthogonal spaceship is so small that it is surprising nobody discovered it before. Its small size allowed the creation of a 22-glider synthesis, and a gun was made soon afterwards. A pseudo-tagalong found a bit later made it possible to create c/10 puffers and rakes. Much of copperhead's fame is due to the mystery surrounding its discovery: it was posted by a newly-joined anonymous user who got inactive afterwards. By zdr, Simon Ekström, et al.
3. Grandfather-less Pattern (39 stars)
"Is there a configuration which has a father but no grandfather?" This is the statement of the grandfather problem, one of the longest-standing open problems in Life, having been unsolved for decades in spite of a $50 prize offer from John Conway Himself in September 1972. It was only this year that the first grandfather-less pattern was discovered using a SAT solver. By mtve.
4. Spaghetti Monster (31 stars)
5. 8-bit Computer (28 stars)
6. Herschel Splitter (19 stars)
7. Bumper (14 stars)
8. New Gun Periods (12 stars)
8. Statorless p5 (12 stars)
10. Aperiodic Tiles (11 stars)
11. Rich's p16 (10 stars)
12. Small GoEs (9 stars)
13. p7 Sparker (6 stars)
13. 15-bit SL Syntheses (6 stars)