Try it for yourself here.
*Try drawing a straight line of cells down the middle, it is really cool.
*Try drawing a straight line of 10 cells, this is a stable pattern. It doesn’t die.
Cellular automata fascinates me. The way that each cell lives out a life of its own, and that with minimal input it takes off and patterns transform on their own. Very cool. Thats why I made this javascript game.
Conway’s Game of Life is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970.
Each cell has 2 states, dead and alive, and 4 rules that it must follow:
- Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbors dies, as if caused by under-population.
- Any live cell with two or three live neighbors lives on to the next generation.
- Any live cell with more than three live neighbors dies, as if by over-population.
- Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbors becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
Users can drag pre-made patterns onto the screen, or create their own. When they’re satisfied, pressing play will start the simulation, and the patterns come to life. While the simulation is running the user can still switch the states of cells. They can also pause and restart from where they left off.
Adding patterns and drawing your own.
Letting it run and seeing what happens.
Cool stuff.