While the simulation is running you can see the iteration count by placing the cursor anywhere on the grid. The button at the very bottom right is the pause/go button. The ' R' button at the bottom right of the grid will place a random pattern on the screen. To make your own initial pattern, click and drag on the grid to mark cells as 'alive'.

Could it be that the evolution of all life in the Universe is an automatic by-product of these laws?īelow is a larger grid which you can use to experiment with yourself. The real world is far more complex than this simple computer simulation, but it too is governed by fundamental laws - the laws of Physics. It's a very simple yet powerful demonstration of how even a few fundamental 'laws' can not only cause order to be created out of chaos, but also give rise to self-replicating structures. The game of Life has become something of a landmark in conceptual thinking. The example on the left is a 'glider' - a pattern that reproduces itself as it moves diagonally across the screen. Sometimes patterns appear that seem to replicate themselves. No matter how chaotic the initial conditions, the patterns on the screen will evolve into some kind of stable order. These simple rules lead to quite astonishing results. New cells are 'born' whenever an empty square has exactly three living neighbors. If it has too many neighbours - four or more - it will die from overcrowding.ģ.

If a cell has one or no living neighbours, it will die of loneliness.Ģ. The rules which determine it's fate are very simple:ġ. Each cell has eight neighbouring cells and can be either 'alive' or 'dead'. The simulation takes place on a 2-dimensional grid divided into cells.

It's a very good example of how a few simple rules can quickly create order out of chaos. Life is a computer simulation devised in the 1960's by the mathematician John Horton Conway.

Game of life computer version