Speed Demonoid/Snippet

Speed Demonoid is a self-constructing adjustable spaceship constructed by Pavel Grankovskiy with the help of Dave Greene and completed on September 18, 2020.

Due to a limitation in the design, this initial version of the Speed Demonoid design has an upper limit speed of 2c/9 diagonally, rather than the theoretical maximum of c/4. A redesign of the circuitry was required to correct this limitation.

Below the 2c/9 upper limit, the Speed Demonoid can be adjusted to move at any rational speed, by moving the trailing TRIGGER1 and TRIGGER2 gliders to the correct locations.

On September 26, a new Speed Demonoid variant was constructed to be smoother to simulate in HashLife, and to improve on the 2c/9 upper speed limit mentioned above. Speed Demonoid v2 can be trivially adjusted to move at any speed that is a rational fraction lower than c/4.

The Speed Demonoid was voted Pattern of the Year for 2020 on the ConwayLife.com forums, tied with the Bandersnatch.