Struggling to wrap my head around how this is possible. Seems others are too [0]. A computer made in, say, minecraft can be given inputs. But since GoL is a zero player game (the player only selects the initial states), how can it possibly compute anything other than the static inputs it's originally provided? Perhaps that's sufficient for Turing Completeness? (when I click 'Run' on the provided link, my chrome tab becomes unresponsive; was hoping to disprove my own disbelief by playing Tetris in GoL but thus far unsuccessful, yet remaining hopeful!).
> how can it possibly compute anything other than the static inputs it's originally provided? Perhaps that's sufficient for Turing Completeness?
Yes, the basic Turing machine model isn't "interactive", it takes some initial input and runs from there.
Edit: Maybe a better way of putting this:
Since you can build a Turing machine as a GoL pattern that will interact with another pattern (its input), analysis of GoL patterns includes analysis of Turing machines, generally.
The basic Turing machine model isn't interactive, but Turing also discussed "choice" machines that were. They're a variant of what we now call non-deterministic turing machines where the decision is determined by a human oracle instead of some other method.
Game of life is no different from other computers in this regard. You can make it have no inputs (just disconnect your mouse/keyboard in the case of your computer), or you can make it have inputs (just have a few GoL cells be controlled externally).
