Lifeline

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A QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER FOR ENTHUSIASTS OF JOHN CONWAY'S GAME OF LIFE

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Lifeline was a newsletter for "enthusiasts of John Horton Conway's game of Life", first edited and published by Robert Wainwright. It was published quarterly, the first issue being in March 1971, and ran for eleven issues. The original newsletter was typewritten and the sheets were stapled together. The newsletter itself followed an enthusiastic response to Martin Gardner's column in Scientific American (October 1970).

Summary of the issues

Volume 1 MARCH 1971

8 pages

  • N-ominoes (Polyomino)
  • A classification system for Life 'Objects'
  • Colliding spaceships
  • Subclasses of Class II - Oscillators
  • Known Class V (Unstable, predictable) object Life histories

Volume 2 JUNE 1971

18 pages

  • Fates of the last four unknown heptominoes
  • An expanded classification system for finite Life objects
  • Examples for each objects class
  • Coming events
  • A comprehensive file of information generated by life experimenters
  • Boltwood's Life program in FORTRAN


Volume 3 SEPTEMBER 1971

32 pages

Wicks and agars

  • A classification system for 'wicks' (one-dimensionally infinite objects)
  • Illusion of motion' (IoM)
  • A summary of fuses
  • A classification system for 'agars' (two-dimensionally infinite objects)
  • The smallest area that should contain a Garden of Eden (GoE) pattern
  • Coming events


Volume 4 DECEMBER 1971

12 pages

  • Publisher R. T. Wainwright willing to be an antecessor
  • The incredible 'Switch engine'
  • Diagonal puffer train
  • Methuselah census
  • 'Natural pentadec'(athlon)
  • Toroidal surface and variations to Conway's basic rules
  • Coming events
  • Lifefile - Thompson's codex system for known Life objects


Volume 5 SEPTEMBER 1972

7 pages

  • New discoveries sent in by 'Buckinghams Combine'
  • Summary of Conway' Life rules
  • HOW TO PLAY LIFE
  • Class E, Evolutionaries, Exercises, Et cetera . . .
  • Class I, Still Lifes and Stable Forms . . .
  • Class II, Oscillators . . .
  • Reader Article: The Period 12 'Line·Block' Oscillator by Edward Fitzgerald, David Lawson, and Tad Marshall of Irvington, N.Y.
  • Excursions Into Other Universes . . .
  • Answers to Reader Exercises
  • COMING EVENTS
  • RANDOM BITS (Thompson has tracked 19,000+ patterns, 71 different two-glider collisions, ...)
  • LIFELINE EDITORIAL BOARD
  • LIFE SAVER survey

Volume 6 OCTOBER 1972

Page 1 Two conjectures by JHC: Grandfather Problem and Unique Father Problem
Page 2 Class E, Evolutionaries, Exercises, Et cetera . . . 'LIFEXPLANATIONS' by Peter Raynham

Reader Briefs ... • Mark Horton on a figure conservatively interacting • Christopher Scussel on the collision of a glider and a lightweight spaceship • Lee H. Skinner on still lifes

Page 3 Class II, Oscillators . . .

Lifeobservation by Glenn Puro regarding a UFO formation
Reader Reply regarding the 'Line-Block' Oscillator by Harry J. Riley

Page 4 Lifecomics by Richard Holmes and Traw

Excursions Into the Universe of '3-4' Life . . .
Lifequote
Editor's Errors_and Embarrassment . . .

Page 5 Moore-Myhill criterion for existance of Garden of Eden configurations. (Reader Article by Frank Bernhart)
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8 Class III, Spaceships and Pure Glider Generators . . .

Lifequote
Lifecomic by Michael Moore
Coming Events

Volume 7 NOVEMBER 1972

Page 1 Another challenge by JHC: Immovable object problem and The Irresistible Force Problem.

Research in Occult Symbology - Part I by Curt Gibson, New York City

Page 2
Page 3 Class E, Evolutionaries, Events, Et cetera:

Lifeobservation by Glenn Puro regarding a UFO formation
Reader Reply regarding the 'Line-Block' Oscillator by Harry J. Riley

Page 4 More LIFEEXPLAINATIONS by Raynham
Lifequote
Lifecomic by Richard Holmes
reader Article: Fly-by Fuses, a Second Flight by Donald Woods
Page 5 Excursions Into the Universe of '3-4' Life . . .
Page 6 Period five wick
Lifecomic by Traw
Regarding the 'Titanic Toroidal Traveler' by W. P. Webb
Page 7 Observation by Bruce Parrello and David Tetenbaum about a glider and pentadecathlon scenario
Page 8 Regarding the 'Titanic Toroidal Traveler' - continued from page 6
Reader Briefs:
• Dean Hickerson: billiard table construction
• Editor's Errors and Embarassment
• Mark Horton's 'five'
• Buckingham's 'five'
• Answer to reader query
• Lifecomic by Niemiec
• Coming Events

Volume 8 DECEMBER 1972

Page 1 Recent findings: • new type of puffer train • collisions of gliders and blocks to assemble spaceship guns and logical circuitry for a Life computer

'Buckinghams Combine' revisited . . .

Page 2 Class E, Evolutionaries, Exercises, Events, Et cetera . . .
Class I, Still Lifes and Stable Forms . . .
LIFEXPLAINATIONS
Ten-bit Still Lifes
Class II, Oscillators . .
Page 3 Progress on the "Life Codex" by Hugh W. Thompson
Page 4
Page 5 Sample "Life Codex" page
Class II, Oscillators . . . (cont. from page 2)
Reader Briefs . . .
Page 6 SDL company logo
Excursions Into the Universe of '3-4' Life . . .
Page 7 Reregarding the 'Titanic Toroidal Traveler' by David Buckingham
Lifequote
Life saver: Lifeline order form
Page 8 Regarding those 'Titanic Toroidal Travelers' by R. Wm. Gosper, Jr.
Lifecomic by Harry J. Riley
Lifequote by William Feather
Coming Events
back of order form

Volume 9 MARCH 1973

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8

Volume 10 JUNE 1973

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8

Volume 11 SEPTEMBER 1973

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24

Index

The Lifeline Index is an alphabetical index for the Lifeline issues and pages.

Conventions

Lifeline uses the following conventions not used in this wiki:

Θ
stands for "nothing" (defined in vol 3 page 20)
ALD
average linear density (defined in vol 3)
glider-α and glider-β
the two different phases of a glider (defined in vol 1 page 8)

Scans of all Lifeline newsletters

The Lifeline project includes page images of the remaining Lifeline newsletters that have not yet been transcribed into text format.

External links