| What is life? |
| Some simple patterns of life |
| The glider gun produces a pattern that
grows without bound. |
| Properly timed collisions of gliders can build
a glider gun. |
| Building a Life computer: data streams |
| Building a Life computer: not |
| Building a Life computer: and |
| Building a Life computer: or |
| Building a Life computer: memory |
| Building on the mechanics of a Life computer, Conway showed there are
self-replicating life patterns along the
lines described by von Neumann.
We will not show such a pattern in detail
because of its complexity and size. Rough estimates suggest the simplest of these
patterns would occupy a region of about ten trillion pixels. For pixels of one
square mm, the pattern would occupy a square with side length over 3 km. |
| Finally, Conway speculated on Life and evolution |