| By small modifications, self-replication allows for motion, not just the creation of offspring. |
| * A Life pattern can construct glider flotillas to build a copy of itself, and another flotilla to destroy itself. |
| * Effectively this moves the pattern across the field. |
| Patterns like the north and east arms in the self-replication stage can be adapted to act as eyes. |
| The absence of a returning glider indicates it encountered something. |
| So there are self-replicating Life patterns that can move and see. |
| The replication instructions of these patterns can be altered by stray gliders, so these patterns can evolve by mutation. |
| With enough time and a large enough simulation, these Life patterns might develop intelligence and even self-consciousness. |
| How would the Life world appear to these creatures? |
| Would it look like a plane, like floating eyeball-deep in an ocean? |
| Or would they have developed a representational illusion? |
| Perhaps the Life field would look like ... the inside of this room. |
| Perhaps we are part of a simulation on some large computer. |
| Let's hope there's no power failure soon. |
| Here's a description of Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom's speculations on the likelihood that we are a simulation on someone else's computer. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/science/14tier.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. Thanks to Daphne Martin for pointing out this reference. |
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