Still life eaters and reflectors, on the other hand, work correctly regardless of the timing of the pattern they modify, as long as successive reactions occur with enough separation in time to allow the eater or reflector to recover its original shape. Oscillators with similar properties may also be called eaters or reflectors, but are more difficult to apply as they must be synchronized to the pattern they modify. A similar device is the ' reflector', which alters the direction of an incoming spaceship. Many examples exist, with the most notable being the fish-hook (Also known as eater 1), which is capable of absorbing several types of spaceship. A still life is called an eater when it can be used to absorb some other pattern (often a glider, spaceship, or the debris from a more complicated reaction) and returns to its original state after the collision. Still lifes can be used to modify or destroy other objects. Blocks are used as components in many complex devices, an example being the Gosper glider gun. A pair of blocks placed side-by-side (or bi-block) is the simplest pseudo still life. that most likely to be generated from a random initial state) is the block.
A random initial pattern will leave behind a great deal of debris, containing small oscillators and a large variety of still lifes. There are many naturally occurring still lifes in Conway's Game of Life. However, it is possible to determine whether a still life pattern is a strict still life or a pseudo still life in polynomial time by searching for cycles in an associated skew-symmetric graph. The distinction between the two is not always obvious, as a strict still life may have multiple connected components all of which are needed for its stability. A strict still life may have only a single island, or it may have multiple islands that depend on one another for stability, and thus cannot be decomposed.
This compares with a strict still life, which may not be partitioned in this way. A pseudo still life consists of two or more adjacent islands ( connected components) which can be partitioned (either individually or as sets) into non-interacting subparts, which are also still lifes.
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