Conway’s Game of Life

Birth, survival and gliders

An interactive lesson with 8 steps, about 7 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Life: birth with exactly 3 neighbours, survival with 2 or 3.
• Still lifes, oscillators and gliders emerge from these rules.
• Glider guns make Life Turing complete.

Steps

1. Three simple rules
2. Step through time
3. Blinker
4. Overcrowding
5. Glider speed
6. Computers in Life
7. The glider gun
8. Unpredictable