Conway's Game of Life is a fascinating cellular automaton devised by British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is a zero-player game that evolves over time based on its initial state, following a set of simple rules. Despite its simplicity, the Game of Life is capable of producing remarkably complex patterns and behaviors.
The Game of Life is played on a grid of cells, each of which can be in one of two states: alive or dead. The state of each cell in the next generation is determined by the following rules:
- Birth: A dead cell with exactly three live neighbors becomes a live cell.
- Survival: A live cell with two or three live neighbors stays alive.
- Death: In all other cases, a cell dies or remains dead.
- Emergent Behavior: Simple rules lead to complex and often unpredictable patterns.
- Patterns: Includes still lifes, oscillators, and spaceships, each exhibiting unique behaviors.
- No Player Interaction: The game progresses autonomously from the initial configuration.
To experiment with the Game of Life, you can set up an initial configuration of live cells on the grid and observe how the pattern evolves over successive generations.
John Horton Conway was a renowned mathematician whose contributions span various fields, including group theory, number theory, and combinatorial game theory. His invention of the Game of Life has had a lasting impact on mathematics, computer science, and the study of complex systems.