The timing was right and by 1970, his idea was published in the October 1970 issue of Scientific American, in Martin Gardner’s “ Mathematical Games” column. He devised the Game of Life based on John von Neumann’s attempts to find such a hypothetical machine for colonizing distant planets. John Horton Conway was studying cellular automata (automated cell-based rule-sets) and wanted to devise a program that could build copies of itself. If you think this analogous to how our universe was born, then you can understand why people still talk about a zero-player computer game from the 70’s. The initial state of the game, not the ruleset, is the only controllable factor in the Game of Life. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbors becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.Any live cell with more than three live neighbors dies, as if by over-population.Any live cell with two or three live neighbors lives on to the next generation.Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbors dies as if caused by under-population.At each “frame” (interval/round of gameplay), the following steps take place in order: Every cell interacts with the 8 surrounding cells. There are two states for cells, alive or dead. The game of life takes place on square cells on an infinite two-dimensional grid (computerized, or not). TIP: For a better understanding of how elementary particles work (core systems) go here, for a better understanding of how cells evolved on earth go here, for a better understanding of how systems work go here. How can we colonize distant planets? Taking humans and equipment probably won’t work, but if we could automate the process say with some mitochondria and chloroplasts that automate we have something to work with. Technology like nano-bots (simple bots that work together in a swarm to mimic complex behaviors, use principles of cellular automata). The Game of Life should be understood as analogous to other systems, rather than an exact mimicry of evolution or a specific physical system like human evolution or even genetic evolution in general.Īlso, it should be understood that since Conway’s Game of Life was published in 1970 scientists have continued to study and improve technology in the field of cellular automata. Does the Game of Life Actually Mimic Real Life?ĭespite the sheer awesomeness of the Game of Life, there are big differences between Conway’s game and the actual evolution of physical systems. The naming is Conway’s invention, it’s clever, but I argue setting a state is “playing”, and thus it’s a “single-player game” with only one actionable turn. TIP: Zero player = an initial state is set and then the game plays itself based on its rule-set. Almost.įACT: You can “play” Conway’s Game of Life online here. It’s almost like we can break down the existence of all systems to mathematic algorithms.
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