Background
Devised by mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970, the Game of Life is a cellular automaton played on an infinite grid of square cells. Each cell is either alive or dead.
The Rules ("B3/S23")
- Birth: A dead cell with exactly 3 live neighbours becomes alive.
- Survival: A live cell with 2 or 3 live neighbours stays alive.
- Death: In all other cases the cell dies (or remains dead).
Outcomes
Depending on the initial seed, the universe may:
- Stabilise into still-lifes or oscillators (Blinker, Toad, Beacon…)
- Produce spaceships that glide across the grid (Glider, LWSS…)
- Explode into chaotic clouds then fade or loop forever
The system is Turing-complete; with clever engineering you can build logic gates, counters, even a functioning computer inside the Life universe.
Visualiser Notes
- The canvas holds a 100×100 toroidal grid (edges wrap around).
- We execute one generation per animation frame when running.
- Randomize fills the grid with a 30 % live density for varied starting points.
Further Reading
conwaylife.com curates patterns, discoveries, and research made by the Life community since the 1970s.