Conway's Game of Life is a classic cellular automaton created by mathematician John Conway in 1970.
The Game of Life unfolds on an infinite two-dimensional grid of cells, where each cell can be either living or dead. The state of every cell evolves with each generation, determined by the states of its eight surrounding neighbors—those adjacent horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
The initial arrangement forms the first generation. The second generation emerges when the rules are applied simultaneously to every cell on the board, meaning all births and deaths occur at once. This process is then repeated for subsequent generations. For each step, a cell's next state is governed by these straightforward rules:
If a cell is alive, it remains alive only if it has exactly 2 or 3 living neighbors.
If a cell is dead, it becomes alive only if it has exactly 3 living neighbors.
Naturally, numerous variations of these rules exist, each using different criteria for cell survival and death. Conway experimented with many alternatives before selecting these specific parameters. Some rule sets cause populations to vanish quickly, while others lead to unchecked expansion across the grid. The chosen rules sit near the boundary between these extremes, where—as often seen in chaotic systems—the balance between explosive growth and total collapse fosters remarkably complex and intriguing patterns.
