There has been a really significant amount of progress on this problem in the last year, since this article was posted. The latest experiments can be found here, from October 2021:
The technology for clearing random ash out of a region of space isn't entirely proven yet, but it's looking a lot more likely than it was a year ago, that a workable "space-cleaning" mechanism could exist in Conway's Life.
As previous comments have pointed out, it certainly wouldn't be absolutely foolproof. But it m... (read more)
There has been a really significant amount of progress on this problem in the last year, since this article was posted. The latest experiments can be found here, from October 2021:
https://conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=136948#p136948
The technology for clearing random ash out of a region of space isn't entirely proven yet, but it's looking a lot more likely than it was a year ago, that a workable "space-cleaning" mechanism could exist in Conway's Life.
As previous comments have pointed out, it certainly wouldn't be absolutely foolproof. But it m... (read more)