Conway's Game of Life

A two-dimensional cellular automaton for exploring how simple local rules can generate unexpectedly rich behaviour. Each cell is either alive or dead. At every step, the next state of a cell is determined only by its eight neighbours.

Rules

  1. Survival: a live cell with two or three live neighbours stays alive.
  2. Death: a live cell with fewer than two neighbours dies from isolation; with more than three, it dies from overcrowding.
  3. Birth: a dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes alive.

Interaction guide

  • Click or drag on either grid to draw an initial condition.
  • Try making the two grids almost identical, then add or remove one cell. How quickly do the histories diverge?
  • Look for stable forms, oscillators, travelling patterns, explosions, extinction, and long-lived transient behaviour.
  • Ask: where does complexity come from if every cell follows the same simple rule?
max 96 × 96
25% live cells
Grid A click or drag to edit ?
generation0
population0
births / deaths0 / 0
Grid B compare with Grid A ?
generation0
population0
difference from A0
8 generations / second
alive cell dead cell recent perturbation / difference marker