Where is the Java? Trust me - it is coming. First, look what I found! A cool simulation of Conway's "Game of Life" on Youtube :
What is the Game of Life? If you don't already know what the Game of Life is, it is a sort of artificial simulation of life. It basically works exactly as the video above shows. A set of rules is specified in a square grid consisting of cells and based on these rules, the game evolves. It is a game in the sense that it is similar to the sorts of games (such as "Go" and "checkers") that you and I might play but it requires no players at all. Once you set up the initial configuration, the 'game' plays itself. The Game of Life was devised by the mathematician John Conway, and the rules of the game are the following three simple ones:
1. A dead cell with exactly three live neighbors becomes a live cell (birth).
2. A live cell with two or three live neighbors stays alive (survival).
3. In all other cases, a cell dies or remains dead (overcrowding or loneliness).
As the video says, the Game of Life is a simple illustration of 'emergence', that is, the idea that the application of a few simple rules can generate complex systems. A Java applet simulation of the Game of Life is available here. It is quite fun to play around with this thing. You can start out with some of the patterns they have on the webpage and press "Go" on the applet to see how things evolve from there. You can create a number of complex patterns starting with very simple ones. Check it out if you get the chance.
