As you probably know, Conway's Life *is* turing-complete. There's a hand-waving proof here (http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Conway's+Game+of+Life), and a Turing machine here (http://www.rendell.uk.co/gol/tm.htm).
Large-scale Life patterns have been the subject of thirty years of research, and have developed an awful lot of jargon: I got into them via Martin Gardner's Wheels, Life and Other Mathematical Amusements (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0716715899/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/002-2093253-3997604), and then Wiliam Poundstone's The Recursive Universe (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809252023/103-1082735-0882250); I was turned onto it by my schoolfriend Reuben Thomas (http://www.mupsych.org/rrt/) , who had developed a rather impressive Life engine on the Acorn Archimedes.
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Life, turing completeness
Date: 2002-08-14 09:35 am (UTC)Large-scale Life patterns have been the subject of thirty years of research, and have developed an awful lot of jargon: I got into them via Martin Gardner's
Wheels, Life and Other Mathematical Amusements (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0716715899/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/002-2093253-3997604), and then Wiliam Poundstone's The Recursive Universe (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809252023/103-1082735-0882250); I was turned onto it by my schoolfriend Reuben Thomas (http://www.mupsych.org/rrt/) , who had developed a rather impressive Life engine on the Acorn Archimedes.
My, that's an obscure comment; hope it's useful.