4. Cellular Automata and Fractal Evolution

The Game of Life

Some patterns of live cells have easily predictable behavior under the Life rule. Here are three examples.
A block remains unchanged from generation to generation, unless something collides with it.
A blinker is a horizontal or vertical line of three cells, both sharing the same middle cell. The vertical line turns into the horizontal line, and these keep oscillating between one another.
More interesting is this little pattern of five live cells. It is called a glider because it glides off to the southeast. The three combinations of horizontal and vertical reflections of the glider give gliders that travel northeast, northwest, and southwest.
Click the picture for an animation.

Return to Life.