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Guns (Game of Life)
A 'gun' (in the world of Cellular Automata) is a stationary pattern that emits moving patterns (i.e. spaceships).
Note that a gun is a pattern which grows without limit.
The first gun to be discovered was the Gosper Glider Gun. It is also the simplest known gun in Conway's Game of Life. It was discovered by Bill Gosper, who also discovered the FlowSnake (also known as the Gosper Curve).
Gosper Glider Gun
Below is the Gosper Glider Gun, which emits a steady stream of gliders. It has a period of 30, as it emits a new glider ever 30 generations.
For the purposes of this demonstration I've also added an eater, at the bottom of the pattern, which destroys the gliders, before they have a chance to wrap around and monkey-wrench the gun. (I'm using a toroidal array, i.e. a wrap-around world... as I can't afford the infinite pixels required for a true GOL board.)
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