Wade's breakthrough came after his real-life child was born. The duties of fatherhood limited the time he could spend playing the game, so he replaced the "computer" with a much simpler pattern called an "instruction tape", made up of smaller patterns known as "gliders". By placing these at precise intervals, he created a program that feeds into the constructor and dictates its actions, much like the punched rolls of tape once used to control the first computers.

One of Eliezer's posts talks about realizing that conventional science is content with an intolerably slow pace. Here we have an example of less time leading to a better solution.