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First Self-Replicating Creature Spawned In Conway's Game of Life
Calopteryx writes "New Scientist has a story on a self-replicating entity which inhabits the mathematical universe known as the Game of Life. 'Dubbed Gemini, [Andrew Wade's] creature is made of two sets of identical structures, which sit at either end of the instruction tape. Each is a fraction of the size of the tape's length but, made up of two constructor arms and one "destructor," play a key role. Gemini's initial state contains three of these structures, plus a fourth that is incomplete. As the simulation progresses the incomplete structure begins to grow, while the structure at the start of the tape is demolished. The original Gemini continues to disassemble as the new one emerges, until after nearly 34 million generations, new life is born.'"
They're coming to take over. Sure, of course there are only a few hundred at first...but then those become thousands, then millions, then billions. Soon, we will all be knee deep in this shit.
lolwut?
Living With a Nerd
Self Replicating post! :-P :-P
Self Replicating post!
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
Fortunately the glider gun is already discovered, so at least we have a means of killing this new self replicating entity. ;)
.: Max Romantschuk
Self Replicating post! :-P :-P :-8
Self Replicating post!
Self Replicating post!
uh oh mutation...
I FUCKED YOUR GRANDMA
OMG!!... What have I done... it is already mutating and evolving.
;-D
Elf Replicating Ghost
No worries, this one can't replicate itself. It's the Monsanto strain.
From the article:
In fact, this is arguably the single most impressive and important pattern ever devised.
Really? Not the universal Turing machine pattern, or the pattern that emulates the game of life itself? Those both seem more impressive to me.
Well, he did say "arguably", which is arguably the worst weasel word in the history of mankind.
<Complete your profile by adding a signature!>
This is slashdot -- some people here think that's actually how it works, while many more think births are all faked by the government, and still more are arguing for more openness in the early stages of the process.
What, you never landed on the "you've had a baby, collect presents" block?
I suppose there wasn't a loop from selling the kids to having the kids go to "start".
Oh man, that just made me get uneasy there for a while. Fantastic piece of writing you have done! You really should consider building that skill up and start submitting manuscripts.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
That's obviously intelligent design. Burn the heathen!
No, but it's mobile and runs completely on electricity, so it's an EV vehicle. It's got a CVT transmission and qualifies as a PZEV vehicle as well. I haven't seen the diagrams, but I assume it would run on DC current.
When it runs out of power, your SOL of luck, though. But only an astute /.dot reader would know about that if they RTFAed the article.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
Great! But does it run NetBSD?
It's Hannah Montana.
OH GOD WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!?
Kill it with fire, kill it with fire!
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
I agree. Weaseling out of things is an important thing to learn. It's what separates us from the animals! Except the weasel.
Oh, a book.