Conway’s Game of Life

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

Slide gun

A gun which fires sideways from an extending arm. The arm consists of streams of spaceships which are pushing a pattern away from the body of the gun and releasing an output spaceship every time they do so. Each output spaceship therefore travels along a different path.

Dieter Leithner constructed the first slide gun in July 1994 (although he used the term "side shooting gun"). The following pattern shows the key reaction of this slide gun. The three gliders shown will push the block one cell diagonally, thereby extending the length of the arm by one cell, and at the same time they release an output glider sideways. (In 1999, Jason Summers constructed slide guns using other reactions.)

Game of Life pattern ’slide_gun’

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 <>