Herschel tracks in Conway’s Game of Life – Part 1 – Making oscillators and glider guns of any period 61 or larger
Back in September 1995, David Buckingham showed how to construct oscillators and glider guns of any period at least 61 in Conway’s Game of Life. His method was based on a tool called a “Herschel conduit“; a configuration of still lifes that can be used to move a Herschel from one location to another. By stitching together several of these Herschel conduits, we can create a complete track for the Herschel to move around, thus creating an oscillator (or a gun, if we let the glider that the Herschel naturally creates escape).
Herschel tracks are still used constantly in Conway’s Game of Life, and I’m starting a series of video tutorials that show how they work. Part 1 is now up:
The pattern animations throughout the video were all made with Manim. Once I get a few more videos under my belt, and my code cleaned up a bit more, I’ll share my code for making pretty Life animations.
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