Breeder (cellular automaton)


In cellular automata such as Conway's Game of Life, a breeder is a pattern that exhibits quadratic growth, by generating multiple copies of a secondary pattern, each of which then generates multiple copies of a tertiary pattern.

Classification

Breeders can be classed by the relative motion of the patterns. The classes are denoted by three-letter codes, which denote whether the primary, secondary and tertiary elements respectively are moving or stationary. The four basic types are:
A spacefiller may be thought of as a fifth class of breeder. However it differs from a true breeder in that it expands a single island of cells, rather than creating independent objects.