Bits 44- Gliders

This downward moving stream next collides with a transverse thinned glider-stream consisting of all empty glider-bit positions except for the tenth, which always contains a glider. The output stream on the right can therefore have a glider only in... 

The only ingredient in the proof of Life s universality that we have not yet discussed is memory storage. While a finite memory is fairly easy to implement with wires and logic gates - for example, glider-stream-encoded information can be made to circulate around a memory circuit contained within the computer - the construction of an arbitrarily large memory requires a bit more work,... 

The short answer is that the ON/OFF bits are real on the microscopic level and the objects are real on a higher, emergent level. A glider is a specific pattern of lower-level bits that, unless it comes into contact with other patterns, is faithfully reproduced in a diagonally displaced position every four iterations. The deeper answer is that both questions are ill-posed because neither object nor real can be objectively defined. Both terms can be understood only when interpreted modulo a specific dynamical level. 

The main philosophical lesson that one ought to walk away with from a study of CA and complexity is this just as what we label as being a glider in Conway s Life depends on us recognizing the fact that its underlying bit pattern repeats in a... 

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