/Conway-s-Game-of-Life

Conway's Game of Life made in Java

Primary LanguageJava

Conway's Game of Life

Conway's Game of Life, also known as Life is a cellular automaton devised by John Horton Conway (rest in peace). It's a zero-player game, meaning that after creating the initial configuration, it requires no further input. It's a really interesting example of emergent behavious; based on a few simple rules, complex phenomena occurs. It's similar to us; we are more than the sum of the cells that compose us. Oh and fun fact, Life is Turing complete and someone has made a computer in the game (check links below).

Demo

(Made for Chinese New Year 2022):

Chinese.New.Year.Conway.mov

Rules

  1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if by underpopulation.
  2. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
  3. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overpopulation.
  4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.

Patterns

(Examples taken from Wikiepdia)

Still Lifes:

Block
Game_of_life_block_with_border svg
Loaf
98px-Game_of_life_loaf svg

Oscillators:

Blinker (period 2)
Game_of_life_blinker
Pulsar (period 3)
Game_of_life_pulsar

Spaceships:

Glider
Game_of_life_animated_glider
Heavy-Weight Spaceship (HWSS)
Animated_Hwss

Guns:

Gosper Glider Gun (It indefinitely shoots out gliders)
610px-Game_of_life_glider_gun svg

RIP John Conway (1937 - 2020):

conwaysGameOfLife

Links

Here are some interesting videos or links made by other people on the subject:

These honestly blow my mind: