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A comment on 1D Conway's Life glider found, 3.7B cells long. Parent comment

Re:1D Conway's Life glider found, 3.7B cells long by syncsynchalt on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @01:36PM (#46138189)
Then, importantly, it collapses itself back down to a 1-dimensional copy of its starting representation, but translated.
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Re:1D Conway's Life glider found, 3.7B cells long by boothby on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @02:44PM (#46139042)
Specifically, after 133_076_755_768 steps, the 1-dimensional pattern reoccurs translated by two pixels. On skimming the thread I haven't determined if that shift is parallel or perpendicular to the line.
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Re:1D Conway's Life glider found, 3.7B cells long by josh11b on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @02:53PM (#46139171)
I think it has to be parallel by symmetry.
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Re:1D Conway's Life glider found, 3.7B cells long by postalrat on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @02:49PM (#46139112)
Can it leave other bits behind after it moves?
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Re:1D Conway's Life glider found, 3.7B cells long by syncsynchalt on Wednesday December 03, 2025 @03:15PM (#46139476)
By definition of a pure spaceship / glider, no it can't. If it emits persistent "exhaust" that's a "smoking ship"[0].

[0] https://conwaylife.com/wiki/Types_of_spaceships#Smoking_ship

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Re:1D Conway's Life glider found, 3.7B cells long by quuxplusone on Thursday December 04, 2025 @12:19AM (#46144055)
IIUC, "smoke" is ephemeral by definition. A spaceship/glider that leaves persistent "debris" in its wake is called a "puffer":

https://conwaylife.com/wiki/puffer

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Re:1D Conway's Life glider found, 3.7B cells long by HTHThreee on Thursday December 04, 2025 @11:09AM (#46149152)
Smoke refers to fairly long lived debris that eventually dies out, the term for one that leaves permanent debris is a puffer.
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Re:1D Conway's Life glider found, 3.7B cells long by HTHThreee on Thursday December 04, 2025 @11:08AM (#46149143)
No, if it does it's called a puffer.
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