John Conway's Game of Life is the best-known cellular automaton. Here we sample some of the remarkable behaviors of this CA.
| What is life? |
| Some simple patterns of life |
| The glider gun produces a pattern that grows without bound. |
| Properly timed collisions of gliders can build a glider gun. |
| Building a Life computer: data streams |
| Building a Life computer: not |
| Building a Life computer: and |
| Building a Life computer: or |
| Building a Life computer: memory |
| Building on the mechanics of a Life computer, Conway showed there are self-replicating life patterns along the lines described by von Neumann. We will not show such a pattern in detail because of its complexity and size. Rough estimates suggest the simplest of these patterns would occupy a region of about ten trillion pixels. For pixels of one square mm, the pattern would occupy a square with side length over 3 km. |
| Finally, Conway speculated on Life and evolution |
Retuen to Examples of Cellular Automaton Patterns.