Collaborative Life news

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MathAndCode
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Collaborative Life news

Post by MathAndCode » April 23rd, 2021, 8:21 pm

Let's get this started. Should the first article be about a recent discovery, or should we try to make up for the time that was missed?
I am tentatively considering myself back.

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by yujh » April 23rd, 2021, 8:49 pm

MathAndCode wrote:
April 23rd, 2021, 8:21 pm
Let's get this started. Should the first article be about a recent discovery, or should we try to make up for the time that was missed?
I think the wiki front page is actually enough for that.
Rule modifier

B34kz5e7c8/S23-a4ityz5k
b2n3-q5y6cn7s23-k4c8
B3-kq6cn8/S2-i3-a4ciyz8
B3-kq4z5e7c8/S2-ci3-a4ciq5ek6eik7

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by dvgrn » April 23rd, 2021, 9:18 pm

yujh wrote:
April 23rd, 2021, 8:49 pm
I think the wiki front page is actually enough for that.
Yup, the CurrentNews pane on the LifeWiki seems to do a fairly good job of collecting one-line reminders of interesting new developments.

What the main page might be good for is an occasional more in-depth explanation of things that people might want to understand better. Maybe this would be a good place to post suggestions for article topics along those lines.

Alternatively, there's what I always used to use the main source weblog for -- "Works in Progress". Anyone who wants to carefully and clearly write up and illustrate a current unfinished project, could certainly get some space to advertise in a home-page article. When I did this, it didn't usually mean I got much more attention or assistance ... but at least it very often helped me get the remaining work straightened out in my mind, and organized enough that I could work through the remaining steps and get the project finished!

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by GUYTU6J » April 23rd, 2021, 10:21 pm

dvgrn wrote:
April 23rd, 2021, 9:18 pm
...
What the main page might be good for is an occasional more in-depth explanation of things that people might want to understand better. Maybe this would be a good place to post suggestions for article topics along those lines.
Do you mean those snippets for "This week's featured article" ? Once I wrote a Rob's p16/Snippet and Ian07 told me about how these works in the talk page.
Could it be feasible to put two of these features articles in a week, one for Game of Life patterns/concepts and another for other cellular automata?
---
Alternatively, there's what I always used to use the main source weblog for -- "Works in Progress". ...
If you mean http://b3s23life.blogspot.com, then it should be noted that blogspot things, like appspot things, are not generally accessible from mainland China. Would you consider doing some relocation work?

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by HartmutHolzwart » April 24th, 2021, 6:44 am

To add my 50 cents: In former times, when David Bell wrote his articles on low period searches, we did the polishing via mailing list, but most of the work was done by David. Then we had the research on the caterpillar and Gabriel Nivasch‘s article on signals and agar crawlers.

Of course, most topics could be covered with a wiki article today, but that works best if a topic is somewhat settled. It would be nice to have some overview on trends and work in progress at times. This is not covered by the current news. In hindsight, we can reconstruct some of the trends from the entries of the POTY voting. What is missing at times are expository articles, the blogspot articles being the notable exception.

What I would be personally interested in: We‘ve seen a lot of progress in glider syntheses for small spaceships recently. Kayzan an and Goldtiger997 seem to have complementary styles for implementation, and recently more people have contributed especially in optimizing existing syntheses. I find this very exciting, while I have no real clue how it works. I also feel that this topic is at a turning point into a sort of mainstream. Tutorials give some insight, but they don’t cover the complete process. So some expository article covering the development from early stages up to recent progress would be nice and would find a broader audience in the CA community, I guess.

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by dvgrn » April 24th, 2021, 7:46 am

GUYTU6J wrote:
April 23rd, 2021, 10:21 pm
Do you mean those snippets for "This week's featured article" ? Once I wrote a Rob's p16/Snippet and Ian07 told me about how these works in the talk page.
Could it be feasible to put two of these features articles in a week, one for Game of Life patterns/concepts and another for other cellular automata?
That's an interesting idea. I'll check in with Nathaniel, but I strongly suspect that something along these lines would happen very quickly, IF someone did the work to put together fifty-two good new OCA snippets. Which should maybe start out with a new thread getting started to figure out what the fifty-two topics should be -- but not necessarily. it's more likely to get done if one person just goes ahead and does all the work.

It will be fairly time-consuming. Filling out the original sample CGoL snippets to a full complement of 52 was so painful that it drove me to write bad poetry to stay sane (and even that might not have worked, I'm not sure).

One minor drawback of the "snippet" model is that it's easy for snippets to end up out of date when the original articles are updated. More maintenance work, ugh... but I suppose it's very minor in the grand scheme of things, and a bit more publicity for OCA topics does seem like a good idea.
Alternatively, there's what I always used to use the main source weblog for -- "Works in Progress". ...
If you mean http://b3s23life.blogspot.com, then it should be noted that blogspot things, like appspot things, are not generally accessible from mainland China. Would you consider doing some relocation work?
Hmm, I think that's a non-trivial exercise, and I don't think I'll have time to deal with a wholesale move of old posts for at least a year. There are at least a dozen maintenance items on my Life to-do list that are higher priority than that, such as a new Release 30 of the Life Lexicon.

However, that's a very good point about the accessibility problem. I'll check with Nathaniel about this also, but I _think_ it should be very easy to set up a new weblog for collaborative contributions, in a more accessible location, and link it to the conwaylife.com homepage in the same way that my blog and Rich Holmes' blog and a few others are linked. Is there any trouble accessing Wordpress blogs like Rich Holmes' blog from mainland China?

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by GUYTU6J » April 24th, 2021, 8:52 am

dvgrn wrote:
April 24th, 2021, 7:46 am
[Something about snippets]
Let's see... The only existing snippets not about GoL (patterns or concepts) are #2 (HighLife) and #26 (2×2). While many are fond of exploring OCA, few are prone to document their excellent works systematically on LifeWiki like me (sorry for advertisement). Indeed there is a long, long way to go. We may better just start from creating more OCA articles with historical significance and good records such as Logic Rule and B2o/S2m34H.

---
dvgrn wrote:
April 24th, 2021, 7:46 am
...
However, that's a very good point about the accessibility problem. I'll check with Nathaniel about this also, but I _think_ it should be very easy to set up a new weblog for collaborative contributions, in a more accessible location, and link it to the conwaylife.com homepage in the same way that my blog and Rich Holmes' blog and a few others are linked. Is there any trouble accessing Wordpress blogs like Rich Holmes' blog from mainland China?
Currently I can get access to it like Alexey Nigin's blog. However, the Complex Projective 4-Space located at cp4space.wordpress.com before relocation was not accessible. (For me, the effect can still be seen happening on some old files like the elliptic curve calculator here).

Nonetheless, these are all personal blogs for various topics they are interested in. I would prefer reviving the aged professional site Game of Life News if admins and H. Koenig could...

(Also, how many notifications would there be if I quote twice like this?)

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by dvgrn » April 24th, 2021, 11:41 am

GUYTU6J wrote:
April 24th, 2021, 8:52 am
I would prefer reviving the aged professional site Game of Life News if admins and H. Koenig could...
I think that it's unlikely that any new posts will be added to the Game of Life News blog at this point; pentadecathlon.com has always been hosted on an on-site server of H. Koenig's with (not surprisingly) some intermittent trouble with reliability. The pattern annotations were done with a custom annotation system that I'm not sure is entirely functional any more, and in any case it has been completely duplicated by LifeViewer by now, and LifeViewer can do a lot more.

That said, let's go ahead and figure out where to set up a new ConwayLife News weblog, somewhere that's as universally accessible as possible, where we can easily invite anyone who is interested in contributing and editing. It will probably be an invitation-only system similar to LifeWiki's, just to keep out spammers and such -- but we should be careful not to set the bar for "notability" so high that people are discouraged from writing reports on works-in-progress.

For example, it would be great if PC101 would put up something about current status and open problems for the (34,7)c/156 caterpillar -- maybe edit it every now and then when a new mechanism appears, and maybe bump it back to the front of the queue on the home page whenever an edit happens. Or I could do something on the current state of HashLife-friendly metacells, Pavgran could report on the fast quadratic-growth replicator, MathAndCode could do an explanation of fast-converter glider syntheses, etc., etc.

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by GUYTU6J » April 24th, 2021, 11:56 am

dvgrn wrote:
April 24th, 2021, 11:41 am
...
That said, let's go ahead and figure out where to set up a new ConwayLife News weblog, somewhere that's as universally accessible as possible, where we can easily invite anyone who is interested in contributing and editing. It will probably be an invitation-only system similar to LifeWiki's, just to keep out spammers and such -- but we should be careful not to set the bar for "notability" so high that people are discouraged from writing reports on works-in-progress.
...
That sounds like a new conwaylife.com subforum to me, similar to the old Patterns board but with a bit more restrictions and — um — higher purity in academic sense? I don't know how its relationship with the current conwaylife.com Home page will be like.

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by dvgrn » April 24th, 2021, 2:48 pm

GUYTU6J wrote:
April 24th, 2021, 11:56 am
That sounds like a new conwaylife.com subforum to me, similar to the old Patterns board but with a bit more restrictions and — um — higher purity in academic sense? I don't know how its relationship with the current conwaylife.com Home page will be like.
I'm thinking more along the lines of the weblog model, similar to Life News or b3s23life.blogspot.com -- short-article postings in chronological order, with optional topic groupings, and with a comments section that goes with each article.

I'm not sure if that could be shoehorned in to the forum model somehow, but it seems like it wouldn't be a very good fit.

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by hkoenig » April 24th, 2021, 6:31 pm

What Dave Greene said about LifeNews is pretty much true.

I've kept pentadecathlon.com/LifeNews alive because every so often it gets referred to by other sites and researchers. But it's obsolete, and I'm not going to put much, if any, effort in adding new stuff, or doing more than fixing some minor problems. The server is a 2007 PowerPC MacMini, so when it dies, the site dies. The weblog software is even older, from Moveable Type, and they haven't supported any of it since 2015. And, I've forgotten much about how it all works and the documentation was online (note, "was", not "is"), and I've lost some of the source code, and am afraid to try to do more than simple fixes.

Earlier this year I updated some of my other weblogs to a new server, along with new weblog/content system, because I got tired of MoveableType's limitations. I looked into moving LifeNews, even wrote some server-side software before I decided against updating because the viewer software would take a lot of effort. (It's amazing how being retired still means limited time to do things, because the list of things to do gets bigger. And spending time in places without Internet access can also be limiting.)

I do think that a small group of people setting up and maintaining/managing a weblog would be a good idea. They could either pick and choose interesting topics from the forums here, and make their own posts describing what's new. Or accept submissions by others if properly prepared and formatted.

(And if someone really wanted to go through the LifeNews postings and redo them for a new content system, I can help by providing the raw content, images and database entries.)

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by wwei47 » April 25th, 2021, 12:22 am

hkoenig wrote:
April 24th, 2021, 6:31 pm
The server is a 2007 PowerPC MacMini, so when it dies, the site dies.
Is there a way to archive it?
Help me find high-period c/2 technology!
My guide: https://bit.ly/3uJtzu9
My c/2 tech collection: https://bit.ly/3qUJg0u
Overview of periods: https://bit.ly/3LwE0I5
Most wanted periods: 76,116

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Re: Collaborative Life news

Post by MathAndCode » April 25th, 2021, 12:45 am

dvgrn wrote:
April 24th, 2021, 11:41 am
MathAndCode could do an explanation of fast-converter glider syntheses
I can start on that now.
Lately, effort seems to have picked up in glider syntheses. The last twenty-cell still lives were synthesized recently, and several new spaceships now have glider syntheses. In this post, I will talk about another recent development, specifically fast components.
Fast components modify a reaction while it is still occurring. These can be used to make a reaction make a different still life or to prevent a reacting that almost coalesces into a still life from falling apart. I am not the first person to think of doing this. Alex Greason has thought of adding functionality to transfer.py that would include fast components, and Extrementhusiast has used fast components here as well as on other occasions. However, I did conceive the idea independently, I may be the first person to use fast components while think of them as components that could be used to do the same thing in multiple situations, and I am apparently the person who popularized them (as much as they were popularized by anyone).
I independently conceived fast components when I was working on syntheses starting from a synthesis base, which is a glider-constructible region that almost coalesces into a still life at one point. Here's an example:

Code: Select all

x = 15, y = 18, rule = B3/S23
2bo$obo$b2o4$12b3o$12bo$13bo$b2o$b2o5$6b2o$5bobo$6bo!
A large still life almost forms around generation 60, but it does not completely coalesce, so the chaos destroys it. However, this can be fixed with a few gliders.

Code: Select all

x = 25, y = 17, rule = B3/S23
15bob2o$15b3o$10b2o4bo$10b2o5$15b2o$14bobo$15bo$5b2o$6b2o$5bo16b2o$b2o
19bobo$obo19bo$2bo!
This is only a tie for cheapness, but one of the nice things about bases is that they can be stabilized in multiple ways. The following stabilization results in a previously unsynthesized still life.

Code: Select all

x = 92, y = 42, rule = B3/S23
78bo$77bo$77b3o$51bo$52b2o$51b2o2$54bo$46bobo6b2o$47b2o5b2o$47bo$90bo
$89bo$89b3o2$77bo$71bo4b2o$72b2o2bobo$71b2o$obo$2o$bo$68b2o$68b2o$2b3o
$2bo$3bo$12bo$11b2o60b2o$11bobo58bobo$73bo2$44b2o4b3o$45b2o5bo$44bo6b
o$60bo$60b2o23bo$59bobo22b2o$84bobo$90bo$89b2o$89bobo!
I continued this approach for other bases, trying to find as many stabilizations as I could. For one base, I realized that I could systematically mix and match stabilizations for two different parts.

Code: Select all

x = 3393, y = 263, rule = B3/S23
2556bo197bo99bo201bo101bo193bo$2557bo8bo177bo8bo101bo8bo181bo8bo103bo
8bo173bo8bo$2555b3o9bo175bo9b3o97b3o9bo179bo9b3o99b3o9bo171bo9b3o$649b
o111bo185bo115bo145bo191bo1163b3o175b3o117b3o179b3o119b3o171b3o$45bo598b
o4bobo107bobo4bo175bo4bobo111bobo4bo138bobo4bo181bo4bobo142bo$44bo150b
o147bo153bo146bobo2b2o109b2o2bobo175bobo2b2o113b2o2bobo139b2o2bobo181b
obo2b2o138bo4bobo$44b3o147bo147bo153bo147b2o119b2o175b2o123b2o144b2o181b
2o143bobo2b2o$194b3o145b3o151b3o1042b2o1042bo139bo5bobo149bo143bo5bob
o151bo135bo5bobo$14bo1686bobo103bobo189bobo107bobo143bobo325b2o141b2o
4b2o147b2o145b2o4b2o149b2o137b2o4b2o$15bo148bo147bo153bo150bobo171bob
o121bobo175bobo143bobo127bobo293bo6bo28b2o105b2o28bo6bo117bo6bo28b2o109b
2o28bo6bo108b2o28bo6bo110bobo177b2o139b2o5bo149b2o143b2o5bo151b2o135b
2o5bo$13b3o149bo147bo153bo150b2o171b2o123b2o175b2o144b2o129b2o142bobo
149bo3bobo29bo105bo29bobo3bo119bo3bobo29bo109bo29bobo3bo109bo29bobo3b
o112b2o28bo6bo$163b3o145b3o151b3o150bo173bo123bo177bo145bo129bo144b2o
147b3o4b2o165b2o4b3o115b3o4b2o169b2o4b3o137b2o4b3o110bo29bobo3bo295bo
301bo295bo$1515bo919b2o4b3o293bobo299bobo293bobo$643bo123bo173bo127bo
145bo179bo299bo119bo177bo123bo145bo473b2o300b2o294b2o$51bo149bo149bo149b
o141bobo5bo113bobo33bo139bobo7bo115bobo31bo111bobo35bo143bobo3bo138bo
10bo141b2o6bo114b2o33bo139b2o8bo116b2o31bo112b2o35bo110bo38bo119bo29b
o149bo117bo31bo149bo121bo27bo149bo$50bo149bo149bo149bo142b2o5bo115b2o
32bo140b2o7bo117b2o30bo113b2o34bo144b2o3bo139bobo7bo143b2o4bo114b2o33b
o141b2o6bo116b2o31bo112b2o35bo112b2o35bo120b2o27bo149bo118b2o29bo149b
o122b2o25bo149bo$7bo42b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64bo42b3o
37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64b
o42b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64bo32b2o8b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64bo42b3o
37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64bo4b2o36b3o37bob
o64bo12bobo27b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo64bo10bobo29b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37b
obo64bo14bobo25b3o37bobo64bo42b3o37bobo$8b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o
66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o
66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o
66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o66b2o80b2o$7b2o82bo
65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82b
o65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o
82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo65b2o82bo5$69bo149bo
149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo$67b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o$68b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o2$49bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o$47bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bo
bo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147b
obo147bobo147bobo147bobo$48b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o6$29bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo$30b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo$28b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b
3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b
3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o3$24b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o
141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o
141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o
141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o$23bobo5b
o141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5b
o141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5b
o141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5b
o141bobo5bo$23bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bo
bo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5b
obo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5b
obo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo$22b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o
5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o
5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o
5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o2$59b3o147b3o147b
3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b
3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o$59bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo$60bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o2$3b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o$
4b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o
148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o$3b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo9$65b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o$64b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o$66bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo38$2556bo197bo99bo201bo101bo193bo$2557bo8bo177bo8bo101bo8bo181b
o8bo103bo8bo173bo8bo$2555b3o9bo175bo9b3o97b3o9bo179bo9b3o99b3o9bo171b
o9b3o$649bo111bo185bo115bo145bo191bo1163b3o175b3o117b3o179b3o119b3o171b
3o$45bo598bo4bobo107bobo4bo175bo4bobo111bobo4bo138bobo4bo181bo4bobo142b
o$44bo150bo147bo153bo146bobo2b2o109b2o2bobo175bobo2b2o113b2o2bobo139b
2o2bobo181bobo2b2o138bo4bobo$44b3o147bo147bo153bo147b2o119b2o175b2o123b
2o144b2o181b2o143bobo2b2o$194b3o145b3o151b3o1042b2o1042bo139bo5bobo149b
o143bo5bobo151bo135bo5bobo$14bo1686bobo103bobo189bobo107bobo143bobo325b
2o141b2o4b2o147b2o145b2o4b2o149b2o137b2o4b2o$15bo148bo147bo153bo150bo
bo171bobo121bobo175bobo143bobo127bobo293bo6bo28b2o105b2o28bo6bo117bo6b
o28b2o109b2o28bo6bo108b2o28bo6bo110bobo177b2o139b2o5bo149b2o143b2o5bo
151b2o135b2o5bo$13b3o149bo147bo153bo150b2o171b2o123b2o175b2o144b2o129b
2o142bobo149bo3bobo29bo105bo29bobo3bo119bo3bobo29bo109bo29bobo3bo109b
o29bobo3bo112b2o28bo6bo$163b3o145b3o151b3o150bo173bo123bo177bo145bo129b
o144b2o147b3o4b2o165b2o4b3o115b3o4b2o169b2o4b3o137b2o4b3o110bo29bobo3b
o295bo301bo295bo$1515bo919b2o4b3o293bobo299bobo293bobo$643bo123bo173b
o127bo145bo179bo299bo119bo177bo123bo145bo473b2o300b2o294b2o$51bo149bo
149bo149bo141bobo5bo113bobo33bo139bobo7bo115bobo31bo111bobo35bo143bob
o3bo138bo10bo141b2o6bo114b2o33bo139b2o8bo116b2o31bo112b2o35bo110bo38b
o119bo29bo149bo117bo31bo149bo121bo27bo149bo$50bo149bo149bo149bo142b2o
5bo115b2o32bo140b2o7bo117b2o30bo113b2o34bo144b2o3bo139bobo7bo143b2o4b
o114b2o33bo141b2o6bo116b2o31bo112b2o35bo112b2o35bo120b2o27bo149bo118b
2o29bo149bo122b2o25bo149bo$50b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo107b3o37b
obo107b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo107b3o
37bobo97b2o8b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo
107b3o37bobo69b2o36b3o37bobo77bobo27b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo75bobo29b3o37b
obo107b3o37bobo79bobo25b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo$90b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o$4bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86b
o62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo
86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62bo86bo62b
o86bo62bo86bo$2bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147b
obo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147b
obo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo$3b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o3$69bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o$67b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o$
68b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o2$
49bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo
149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo$47bobo147bobo147bobo147b
obo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147b
obo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo147bobo$48b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o6$29bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo$30bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo$28b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b
3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b
3o147b3o3$24b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o
141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o
141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o
141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o$23bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5b
o141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5b
o141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5b
o141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo141bobo5bo$23bo5bobo141bo5bo
bo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5b
obo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5b
obo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5bobo141bo5b
obo$22b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o
5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o
5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o
5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o2$59b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b
3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b3o147b
3o147b3o147b3o147b3o$59bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo$60b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo6$7bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo$2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o
5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o
5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o
5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o$b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b
2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3b
obo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo
142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b2o3bobo142b
2o3bobo$o149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo
149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo4$65b2o148b2o148b2o
148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o$64b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b
2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o148b2o$66bo149bo149bo149bo149bo
149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149bo149b
o149bo149bo149bo149bo38$2631bo297bo303bo$2632bo8bo288bo8bo294bo8bo$2630b
3o9bo285b3o9bo291b3o9bo$686bo301bo337bo1313b3o295b3o301b3o$45bo638bob
o4bo294bobo4bo327bo4bobo217bo$44bo150bo222bo266b2o2bobo295b2o2bobo327b
obo2b2o213bo4bobo$44b3o147bo222bo272b2o300b2o327b2o218bobo2b2o$194b3o
220b3o1121b2o1117bo297bo303bo$14bo1761bobo295bobo178bobo400b2o296b2o302b
2o$15bo148bo222bo328bobo299bobo273bobo443bo6bo28b2o260bo6bo28b2o180b2o
28bo6bo110bobo252b2o296b2o302b2o$13b3o149bo222bo327b2o300b2o275b2o217b
obo224bo3bobo29bo261bo3bobo29bo180bo29bobo3bo112b2o28bo6bo$163b3o220b
3o328bo301bo275bo219b2o222b3o4b2o289b3o4b2o240b2o4b3o110bo29bobo3bo$1515b
o919b2o4b3o$692bo301bo325bo449bo297bo194bo$51bo149bo224bo263bobo33bo265b
obo31bo293bobo3bo213bo10bo216b2o6bo289b2o8bo187b2o35bo110bo38bo194bo29b
o267bo31bo271bo27bo$50bo149bo224bo265b2o32bo267b2o30bo294b2o3bo214bob
o7bo218b2o4bo291b2o6bo187b2o35bo112b2o35bo195b2o27bo268b2o29bo272b2o25b
o$50b3o37bobo107b3o37bobo182b3o37bobo257b3o37bobo257b3o37bobo257b3o37b
obo172b2o8b3o37bobo182b3o37bobo257b3o37bobo182b3o37bobo69b2o36b3o37bo
bo152bobo27b3o37bobo225bobo29b3o37bobo229bobo25b3o37bobo$90b2o148b2o223b
2o298b2o298b2o298b2o223b2o223b2o298b2o223b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b2o$
91bo149bo224bo299bo299bo299bo224bo224bo299bo224bo149bo224bo299bo299bo
2$5bobo147bobo222bobo297bobo297bobo297bobo222bobo222bobo297bobo222bob
o147bobo222bobo297bobo297bobo$6b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b2o298b2o223b2o
223b2o298b2o223b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b2o$6bo149bo224bo299bo299bo299b
o224bo224bo299bo224bo149bo224bo299bo299bo$69bo149bo224bo299bo299bo299b
o224bo224bo299bo224bo149bo224bo299bo299bo$67b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b
2o298b2o223b2o223b2o298b2o223b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b2o$68b2o148b2o223b
2o298b2o298b2o298b2o223b2o223b2o298b2o223b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b2o2$
49bo149bo224bo299bo299bo299bo224bo224bo299bo224bo149bo224bo299bo299bo
$47bobo147bobo222bobo297bobo297bobo297bobo222bobo222bobo297bobo222bob
o147bobo222bobo297bobo297bobo$48b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b2o298b2o223b
2o223b2o298b2o223b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b2o6$29bo149bo224bo299bo299b
o299bo224bo224bo299bo224bo149bo224bo299bo299bo$30bo149bo224bo299bo299b
o299bo224bo224bo299bo224bo149bo224bo299bo299bo$28b3o147b3o222b3o297b3o
297b3o297b3o222b3o222b3o297b3o222b3o147b3o222b3o297b3o297b3o3$24b2o5b
2o141b2o5b2o216b2o5b2o291b2o5b2o291b2o5b2o291b2o5b2o216b2o5b2o216b2o5b
2o291b2o5b2o216b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o216b2o5b2o291b2o5b2o291b2o5b2o$23bobo
5bo141bobo5bo216bobo5bo291bobo5bo291bobo5bo291bobo5bo216bobo5bo216bob
o5bo291bobo5bo216bobo5bo141bobo5bo216bobo5bo291bobo5bo291bobo5bo$23bo
5bobo141bo5bobo216bo5bobo291bo5bobo291bo5bobo291bo5bobo216bo5bobo216b
o5bobo291bo5bobo216bo5bobo141bo5bobo216bo5bobo291bo5bobo291bo5bobo$22b
2o5b2o141b2o5b2o216b2o5b2o291b2o5b2o291b2o5b2o291b2o5b2o216b2o5b2o216b
2o5b2o291b2o5b2o216b2o5b2o141b2o5b2o216b2o5b2o291b2o5b2o291b2o5b2o2$59b
3o147b3o222b3o297b3o297b3o297b3o222b3o222b3o297b3o222b3o147b3o222b3o297b
3o297b3o$59bo149bo224bo299bo299bo299bo224bo224bo299bo224bo149bo224bo299b
o299bo$60bo149bo224bo299bo299bo299bo224bo224bo299bo224bo149bo224bo299b
o299bo8$7b3o147b3o222b3o297b3o297b3o297b3o222b3o222b3o297b3o222b3o147b
3o222b3o297b3o297b3o$9bo149bo224bo299bo299bo299bo224bo224bo299bo224bo
149bo224bo299bo299bo$8bo149bo224bo299bo299bo299bo224bo224bo299bo224bo
149bo224bo299bo299bo3$65b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b2o298b2o223b2o223b2o
298b2o223b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b2o$64b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b2o298b
2o223b2o223b2o298b2o223b2o148b2o223b2o298b2o298b2o$66bo149bo224bo299b
o299bo299bo224bo224bo299bo224bo149bo224bo299bo299bo!
This is what made me realize that these fast ways of modifying a pattern aren't just one-use tricks, but instead, many of them can be used to do the same thing in multiple scenarios, making them useful for base stabilization. Fast components can also be used to modify a still life. This can result in substantial reductions. For example, consider big S with two tubs. Before I started working on fast components, its cheapest synthesis required eleven gliders. A similar still life, big S with tub only costs four gliders, but the preblock→tub component cannot be used on preblocks of that nature because of the line of four cells, so big S with two tubs had to be constructed using a different method with more steps.

Code: Select all

x = 50, y = 15, rule = B3/S23
3bo36bo$bobo34bobo$2b2o35b2o$8bo36bo$6b2o35b2o$7b2o35b2o$10b2o35b2o$2b
2o6bobo26b2o6bobo$bobo6bo27bobo6bo$bo36bo$2o37b4o$43bo$41bobo$40bobo$
41bo!
However, while the preblock can't be converted into a tub once it has been formed, I noticed that a domino spark could turn it into a tub while it was still forming. (It should be noted that I originally noted that a domino spark could make a region form a tub instead of a preblock for big S, so I looked at the Catagolue page for big S with tub to see whether or not that would be an improvement. It turned out big S with tub also costs four gliders, so applying the fast converter to big S wouldn't be an improvement, but I noticed that Catagolue's synthesis for big S with tub also made the preblock on the edge of the reaction, where it would be accessible to fast components, so I looked at the Catagolue page for big S with two tubs in order to see whether or not applying the fast component to Catagolue's synthesis for big S with tub would result in a reduction.)

Code: Select all

x = 18, y = 10, rule = B3/S23
2bo12bo$bobo10bobo$obo10bobo$bo12bo$b4o9b4o$4bo12bo$3b2o11b2o$3bo12bo
2$14b2o!
This yielded a six-glider synthesis of big S with two tubs, a reduction of almost 50%.

Code: Select all

x = 35, y = 40, rule = B3/S23
6bo$7bo$5b3o5$16bo$15b2o$15bobo2$11b3o$13bo$12bo10$28b3o$28bo$29bo9$2o
$b2o$o$32b3o$32bo$33bo!
This reduction, as well as other early successes with fast components, motivated me to keep looking into the subject. Soon, others noticed the progress that I was making and started investigating fast components themselves. For example, here is a fast boat→fishhook component that iNoMed found:

Code: Select all

x = 35, y = 25, rule = DoubleB3S23
A$.2A$2A5$12.C.C9.C$13.2C9.C.C$13.C10.2C3$20.3C$22.C$21.C4$3.2A$4.2A$
3.A2$32.2C$32.C.C$32.C!
Despite all of the progress that has already been made with fast components, there are still many more discoveries to be made. For example, here are a couple of fast components that I found two days before typing the first draft of this post:

Code: Select all

x = 97, y = 93, rule = DoubleB3S23
95.C$94.C$94.3C32$32.A$31.A.A$31.A.A$32.A3$47.C.C$40.C6.2C$40.C7.C$40.
C2$45.C$44.C.C$43.C2.C19.C$44.2C6.C11.2C$52.2C3.2C6.2C$51.C.C3.C.C$57.
C2$61.2C$60.2C$62.C16$2A$.2A$A17$72.2C$71.2C$73.C!

Code: Select all

x = 60, y = 53, rule = DoubleB3S23
56.A$54.2A$55.2A3$15.C$16.2C$15.2C7$20.2C$19.C.C$21.C2$35.C$34.2C$34.
C.C6$49.C$48.2C$48.C.C17$4.2A$5.2A$4.A$.A$.2A$A.A55.2A$57.2A$59.A!
This means that if you want to work on fast components, there is plenty that you can do to help. Just look through soup-based or glider_stdin-based syntheses on Catagolue and see if there is a region at the edge of the still life that you might be able to modify to make it stabilize in a different way, either using one of the fast components in the collection or by figuring out your own fast component. When I do the latter, I start by adding a single glider, and if the region kind of stabilizes, I'll try either hitting it with another glider up to a few generations before or replacing it with a two-glider region (e.g. a pi sequence) with the same or a similar frontend. Each time one of the things that I try makes the region last at least two or three generations together before falling part, I'll save that and then try adding another glider or replacing another glider with a two-glider region, and if I see that the region is close to a particular stabilization (e.g. I see a ghost long hook form and know that I can turn it into a long hook), I'll specifically aim for that.
Attachments
fast components.rle
(59.98 KiB) Downloaded 72 times
I am tentatively considering myself back.

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