as if by underpopulation.
to the next generation.
as if by overpopulation.
as if by reproduction.
Conway's Game of Life, created by British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970, is a fascinating example of a cellular automaton. It's a zero-player game, meaning its evolution is determined solely by its initial state, with no further input needed.
The game unfolds on an infinite two-dimensional grid of square cells, each of which can be in one of two possible states: alive or dead. At each iteration, or 'generation', of the game, the state of each cell is updated based on a simple set of rules.
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Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbors dies,
as if by underpopulation.
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Any live cell with two or three live neighbors survives to the next generation.
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Any live cell with more than three live neighbors dies, as if by overpopulation.
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Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbors becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
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Despite the simplicity of these rules, the game can exhibit incredibly complex and intricate behavior. Patterns can emerge, interact, and evolve over time, creating mesmerizing visual displays and posing interesting challenges for computational analysis.
The Game of Life has found applications in various fields, including computer science, biology, and theoretical studies of complex systems. It serves as a captivating example of emergent phenomena and the power of simple rules to generate complexity.