----- Original Message ----- From: "The Fool" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Brin-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 12:53 AM Subject: Re: GS 10 > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > * 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. > > Really it's a grid with theretically infinite boundaries. You can impose > artificial boundaries on the grid, but these interect with the life > organisms very strangely. I don't think it's possible to create rules > for the edges that 'rebound' gliders or other life constructs. > Well, I'll bet dollars to donuts that DB did not sit down and write out a full complex game like he evisionsed for Life before he wrote it into GS. He did pass the versimilitude test for me with that. That is, if an idea in a story is not so far out of line that it distracts me, then it is acceptable. Failures in this regard include many of the "danger from the heavens" movies. Dan M.
