technology John Conway's Game of Life

[Astral Blitzen 469]

http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/     

 

The Game of Life is not your typical computer game. It is a 'cellular automaton', and was invented by Cambridge mathematician John Conway. It consists of a collection of cells which, based on a few mathematical rules, can live, die or multiply. Depending on the initial conditions, the cells form various patterns throughout the course of the game.

 

 

The Rules

 

For a space that is 'populated':

• Each cell with one or no neighbors dies, as if by loneliness.
• Each cell with four or more neighbors dies, as if by overpopulation.
• Each cell with two or three neighbors survives.

For a space that is 'empty' or 'unpopulated':

• Each cell with three neighbors becomes populated.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Astral Blitzen

[hawkflame 3,310]

 

http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/     

 

The Game of Life is not your typical computer game. It is a 'cellular automaton', and was invented by Cambridge mathematician John Conway. It consists of a collection of cells which, based on a few mathematical rules, can live, die or multiply. Depending on the initial conditions, the cells form various patterns throughout the course of the game.

 

 

The Rules

 

For a space that is 'populated':

• Each cell with one or no neighbors dies, as if by loneliness.
• Each cell with four or more neighbors dies, as if by overpopulation.
• Each cell with two or three neighbors survives.

For a space that is 'empty' or 'unpopulated':

• Each cell with three neighbors becomes populated.

 

 

 

I had this as an assignment in one of my CS programming classes.  Unfortunately I could never quite get it to work...

[Astral Blitzen 469]

I had this as an assignment in one of my CS programming classes.  Unfortunately I could never quite get it to work...

Ah, I bet. There's a lot that goes into this. I mean it seems so simple to make, but I wouldn't think it is XD

[Celtore 2,770]

I remember an old friend of mine showing me this back in grade 6 or 7! I thought it was pretty cool and enjoyed played with a whole bunch of premade patterns. Never really "engineered" anything myself so much as I just clicked random nodes and watched what happened.

[Sigma 768]

Finally! someone decided to make a post about math!

 

I have Golly on both my main computer and my netbook. Golly is basically John Conway's game of life for Linux. It has the exact same set of rules, and comes with several interesting pattern such as spaceships, breeders, oscillators, and guns. My favourite pattern is this complicated X-shaped gun that makes really interesting spaceships:

 

 

Here's the spaceship that it makes:

 

 

EDIT: Okay, huge screenshot fail. I'll fix it:

 

Edited May 4, 2014 by Asterisk Propernoun