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Gosper Glider Gun

Gun

The First Gun

The Gosper Glider Gun is a legendary pattern in Game of Life history. Discovered by Bill Gosper in 1970, it was the first proof that populations in the Game of Life could grow infinitely.

Mechanism

It consists of two "Queen Bee" shuttles that collide with blocks in a specific way. These collisions produce debris that forms into a Glider, which escapes the gun. The mechanism then resets and repeats the process every 30 generations.

Significance

Before this discovery, it was conjectured that all patterns would eventually stabilize or die out. The Gosper Glider Gun proved that the Game of Life is Turing complete, as these streams of gliders can be used to construct logic gates and memory.

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