Highlife

:For the West African musical genre, see Highlife.

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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 23/36; that is, a cell is born if it has 3 or 6 neighbors and survives if it has 2 or 3 neighbors.

Related Topics:
Cellular automaton - Conway's Game of Life

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Because the rules of HighLife and Conway's Life (rule 23/3) 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.

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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.

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

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