Conway's Game of Life, a cellular automaton conceived by mathematician John Conway in 1970, unfolds on an infinite, two-dimensional grid. Each cell exists in one of two states: alive or dead. A cell's fate in the next generation depends entirely on its eight immediate neighbors (horizontally, vertically, and diagonally adjacent).
The initial arrangement of cells constitutes the first generation. Subsequent generations arise by simultaneously applying a set of rules to every cell. These rules, governing birth and death, are applied iteratively:
- Survival: A live cell remains alive if it has two or three live neighbors.
- Birth: A dead cell becomes alive if it has exactly three live neighbors.
Conway experimented with numerous rule variations before settling on this specific set. Some variations lead to rapid population extinction, others to unbounded expansion. The chosen rules lie near the critical point between these extremes, creating a fascinating interplay of growth and decay, a hallmark of complex systems found at such boundaries.
