Conway’s Game of Life

.........O.................... .........O.O.................. .........OOO.................. ...........O.................. .............................. .............................. .............................. .............................. ..OO......OO.................. ...O.......O.................. OOO.....OOO................... O.......O..................... .............................. .............................. .............................. ..................OO.......... .............OO...OO.......... .............OO............... .............................. .............................. ............OO............OO.. .............O....OO......O... ..........OOO.....OO.......OOO ..........O..................O

Life Lexicon

This Life lexicon is compiled by Stephen A. Silver from various sources and may be copied, modified and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported licence. See the original credit page for all credits and the original download location. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Fx119 inserter

A Herschel-to-glider converter and edge shooter based on an Fx119 Herschel conduit:

Game of Life pattern ’Fx119_inserter’

This edge shooter has an unusually high 27hd clearance, one of the highest known for a single small component. The only known higher-clearance edge shooters are injectors making use of multiple interacting spaceships. This makes the Fx119 inserter ideal for the construction of wide convoys whose total width can fit within its clearance distance.

The component creates a large cloud of smoke behind its emitted glider which lasts for over 90 generations. In spite of this, many tightly packed convoys can be made by injecting later gliders behind others in the convoy, helped along by the insertion reaction which is able to catch up to the existing gliders. The Fx119 inserter can place a glider on the same lane as a passing glider and as close as 15 ticks behind, which is only one step away from the minimum possible following distance.

Game of Life Explanation

The Game of Life is not your typical computer game. It is a cellular automaton, and was invented by Cambridge mathematician John Conway.

This game became widely known when it was mentioned in an article published by Scientific American in 1970. It consists of a grid 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.

Rules

For a space that is populated:
Examples

Each cell with one or no neighbors dies, as if by solitude.

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.

More information

Video’s about the Game of Life

Stephen Hawkings The Meaning of Life (John Conway's Game of Life segment)
The rules are explained in Stephen Hawkings’ documentary The Meaning of Life
Inventing Game of Life (John Conway) - Numberphile
John Conway himself talks about the Game of Life

Interesting articles about John Conway

Products I Use and Love

These are services I personally use and trust every day. These links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you choose to make a purchase—at no extra cost to you. This helps support this site and allows me to continue improving it. Thank you for your support!

This site is made by Edwin Martin <>