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Is there a more compact or well-defined way to phrase this? Does "elementary" mean that by removing any arbitrary n cells, this structure won't exhibit the intended behavior? Or it won't exhibit any "interesting" behavior at all? Or does it mean that no subset of the cells exhibit any interesting behavior on their own?

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From the looks of it, no actual subset of it would form a functional system, so it is itself a fundamental unit?

That's basically right. Remove any one cell or any subgroup from the knightship, and it's no longer a working spaceship -- at least not one that moves the same speed!

There are "optional extras" that can be added or removed from some spaceships. These are called "tagalongs", and aren't considered to be part of the ship. That can get a little complicated, too, though, like with another recent-ish discovery: http://conwaylife.com/wiki/Fireship .

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