Game of Life

RIP John Conway 1937-2020

The Game of Life, often abbreviated to Life, was made by Conway in 1970. It is a computer simulation showing how randomness and complexity can result from very simple conditions. Life is turing complete and non-determinsitic. Many patterns eventually emerge:

  1. Still lifes - A segment will stay still.
  2. Oscillators - They will oscilate between a few patterns.
  3. Spaceships - They travel in one direction.
  4. Guns - They will continue to osciallate whilst creating new spaceships.

Examples of each can be found in the dropdown below.

Rules of Life

Underpopulation:

A cell with less than two alive adjacent cells dies.

Overpopulation:

A cell with four or more alive adjacent cells dies.

Reproduction:

A dead cell with exactly three alive cells becomes alive.

Homeostasis:

An alive cell with two or three alive neighbours lives on.

Change the Rules of Life

Cells live on between

and

alive adjacent cells.

Dead cells are repopulated when between

and

adjacent cells are alive.

Oh no, everybody died!

Iterations:

0

Tile size:

20 px

Iteration Speed:

500 ms