glider

1. (cellular automata) In the Game of Life, a particular configuration of five cells that recurs periodically at fixed offsets and appears to "walk" across the grid.Examples: "By the way, what happens to a beehive which is under attack by one or two gliders such as pictured:"; "I believe it is indeed new -- I've gone back through everything I can find, as far back as the early 90's when Heisenburp devices were first invented, and there don't seem to be any reactions based on a glider suppressing a blinker."; "In Conway's Life interesting effects can be obtained by colliding gliders."

2. (cellular automata) In the Game of Life, a particular configuration of five cells that recurs periodically at fixed offsets and appears to "walk" across the grid.Examples: "It is a reversible rule, and an interesting one. Shortly after I implemented it, Chris and I were watching it run from a small random configuration of vants, when we noticed a structure consisting of 2 vants propagating away from the others -- it is a glider of sorts, consisting of 2 cooperating vants moving along, erasing each others' trail."; "I wanted to test some totalistic automaton and the glider with the B024S1 rule, which Ilmari Karonen described."; "By contrast, consider a rule like Seeds (B2/S) that has "gliders" and oscillators and so forth, so theoretically it might support universal computation somehow."broadly

3. (entomology) Any of various species of dragonfly that glide on out-held wings while flying, such as the common glider, Tramea loewii, of Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia, and the Pacific.