OP said I can initialize a large chunk as I like (which I initialize to be empty aside from my constructors to avoid interfering with placing the pixels), and then the rest might be randomly or arbitrarily initialized, which is why I brought up the wall of still-life eaters to seal yourself off from anything that might then disrupt it. If his specific values don’t give me enough space, but larger values do, then that’s an answer to the general question as nothing hinges on the specific values.
I was imagining that the goal configuration would be defined over the whole grid, so that it wouldn’t be possible to satisfy the objective within the initial region, since that seems most analogous to constructing an AI in, say, a single room on Earth and having it eventually influence the overall arrangement of matter and energy in the Milky Way.
This sounds like you’re treating the area as empty space, whereas the OP specifies that it’s filled randomly outside the area where our AI starts.
OP said I can initialize a large chunk as I like (which I initialize to be empty aside from my constructors to avoid interfering with placing the pixels), and then the rest might be randomly or arbitrarily initialized, which is why I brought up the wall of still-life eaters to seal yourself off from anything that might then disrupt it. If his specific values don’t give me enough space, but larger values do, then that’s an answer to the general question as nothing hinges on the specific values.
I was imagining that the goal configuration would be defined over the whole grid, so that it wouldn’t be possible to satisfy the objective within the initial region, since that seems most analogous to constructing an AI in, say, a single room on Earth and having it eventually influence the overall arrangement of matter and energy in the Milky Way.