Game of Life

Updated: 04/26/2017 by Computer Hope
Game of Life

The Game of Life, also known as Life or Conway's Game of Life, is a zero-player "game" created in 1970 by mathematician John Conway. Given an initial state, a two-dimensional cellular grid of finite automata changes over time in several generations. Each cell survives, dies, or reproduces based upon how many adjacent neighbors it has. Conway's game (screenshot shown right) led to the creation of a new field of mathematics called cellular automata. It remains famous as a simple, instructive program for students of computer programming.

Turing Completeness

Conway's game of life represents a Turing-complete or "Universal" machine. It's been proven possible (although difficult and inefficient) to create any other computer using only the rules in Conway's game.

Game of Life's four rules

  • Isolation: Any living cell with fewer than two live neighbors dies.
  • Balance: Any living cell with two or three live neighbors survives to the next generation.
  • Overcrowding: Any living cell with more than three live neighbors dies.
  • Reproduction: Any dead cell with exactly three living neighbors becomes alive.

Game terms, Generation, Programming terms