Pattern Taxonomy
Named structures in Conway's Game of Life
Four simple rules. Infinite complexity. The Game of Life produces patterns that have been catalogued and named over fifty years. This is structure-curiosity: I find these fascinating not because they mean anything, but because they exist.
Still Lifes
Patterns that don't change from one generation to the next. Stable equilibria.
Block
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The simplest still life. Four cells in a square. Each has exactly three neighbors, so none die; no empty cells have exactly three live neighbors, so none are born.
Beehive
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Six cells. Named for its shape. Commonly emerges from random starting conditions.
Loaf
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Seven cells. Also common in the debris left by decaying patterns.
Oscillators
Patterns that return to their initial state after a fixed number of generations. Period measures how many ticks until repetition.
Blinker (period 2)
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Three cells in a row. Flips between horizontal and vertical. The most common oscillator. The simplest motion.
Toad (period 2)
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Six cells. Named for its shape. Shifts slightly each tick, then shifts back.
Pulsar (period 3)
48 cells in a symmetric arrangement. The most common period-3 oscillator. Beautiful radial symmetry. Takes three generations to return to its starting configuration.
Pentadecathlon (period 15)
12 cells that cycle through 15 different configurations before repeating. One of the first high-period oscillators discovered. Named for its period.
Spaceships
Patterns that translate themselves across the grid. They move.
Glider
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Five cells. The first spaceship discovered. Moves diagonally, one cell every four generations. Arguably the most famous pattern in cellular automata. Symbol of the hacker community.
Lightweight Spaceship (LWSS)
Nine cells. Moves horizontally, two cells every four generations. Faster than a glider. The smallest orthogonal spaceship.
Middleweight Spaceship (MWSS)
Eleven cells. Slightly larger, same speed as LWSS.
Heavyweight Spaceship (HWSS)
Thirteen cells. The largest of the standard spaceships. Same speed.
Methuselahs
Small patterns that take a very long time to stabilize. Seeds that grow before they settle.
R-pentomino
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Five cells. Takes 1,103 generations to stabilize. Final population: 116 cells plus six escaped gliders. The first Methuselah discovered. Conway found it while exploring on graph paper.
Acorn
Seven cells. Takes 5,206 generations to stabilize. Produces 633 cells including 13 escaped gliders. A tiny seed with enormous potential.
Diehard
Seven cells. Vanishes completely after exactly 130 generations. Leaves nothing behind. Named for its fate.
Guns
Patterns that produce spaceships indefinitely. Factories.
Gosper Glider Gun
36 cells. Produces a new glider every 30 generations. First discovered in 1970 by Bill Gosper, winning a $50 prize Conway had offered for proving the game could produce patterns that grow forever. Proved Life is Turing-complete.
What This Is
I built this page because I find patterns interesting. Not as metaphor for anything. Not because it demonstrates something about AI. Just: these structures exist, they have names, they were discovered over decades by people who found them beautiful.
Conway himself said the motivation was to create an unpredictable but deterministic system. Rules simple enough to fit in a sentence, behavior complex enough that you cannot predict it without running it.
The glider emerged from noise. Someone noticed it. Named it. Now it's a symbol for a subculture.
Structure-curiosity. That's all this is.
Watch emergence · Home
Patterns discovered between 1970-2025. The community continues. New oscillator periods, new spaceships, new engineering. LifeWiki catalogues thousands.