On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, David Bell wrote:
My idea was to investigate Life rules which had birth on only two neighbors. Using totalistic rules, this is a lose (in my opinion) since objects explode when they get two cells adjacent vertically or horizontally. But if we abandon totalistic rules, then we can fix this problem. I was looking for the combination of nicest behavior and simplest rule I could find. The most interesting rule I found was this one: A cell stays alive only if it has 1 or 2 live neighbors (in any position). A cell is born only if it has exactly two live neighbors which are not adjacent vertically or horizontally. So in the following figure, the central cell is born if there are live cells at any two cells marked ac, ad, ae, af, ag, bd, be, bf, bg, bh, ce, cf, cg, ch, df, dg, dh, eg, eh, or fh. abc hid gfe