What to watch
- It keeps the same 2 x 2 shape forever.
- It can absorb or redirect nearby reactions in larger constructions.
- Many chaotic soups end with several blocks in the ash.
Still lifes
Block
The smallest and most common still life.
The block is the simplest stable object in Life. Its four cells each have exactly three neighbors, so the object survives without producing births around it.
- Category
- Still lifes
- Period
- 1
- Movement
- bounded
- Population
- 4 cells
- Bounding box
- 2 x 2
- Known since
- 1970
How to use it
Use it to teach survival by two or three neighbors and to compare stable ash against active patterns.
Open the pattern in the lab, reduce the speed, and use single-step mode when a phase change is hard to see. The green preview marks births in the next generation; red outlines mark live cells that will die.