> > > * What is a _reversible_ Life game? I suppose this is no Life game > > at all, but some kind of zip/compress utility > > This is just Brin taking liberties with the narrative. To make Life > reversible would require enough changes to the system that it wouldn't be > recognizeable as Life anymore. The reason you can't use a Life grid as a > form of encryption is that you can't reverse the process. Brin takes > many liberties with Life in the book. Gliders do not bounce off of walls > or artificial boundaries (borders). etc. I could be totally clueless, but recall my internal visual image of "Life" was rather like Othello with "rebounding borders". The black/white, on/off, 0/1 nature of this type of set up allowed me to think easily of the computer imaging as a result. dd
