HighLife

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For the West African musical genre, see Highlife.

HighLife is a cellular automaton similar to Conway's Game of Life. It was invented in 1994 by Nathan Thompson. It is a two-dimensional, two-state cellular automaton in the "Life family" and is described by the rule B36/S23; that is, a cell is born if it has 3 or 6 neighbors and survives if it has 2 or 3 neighbors.

Because the rules of HighLife and Conway's Life (rule B3/S23) are similar, many simple patterns in Conway's Life function identically in HighLife. Most complicated ones do not, though. The interest in HighLife comes from the existence of a pattern called the replicator.

Image:Highlife replicator.png

After running the replicator for twelve generations, the result is two replicators. The replicators will repeatedly reproduce themselves, all on a diagonal line. Whenever two replicators try to expand into each other, the pattern in the middle simply vanishes.

In Conway's Life, it has been proven that replicators exist, but no example is known.

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