Conway's Game of Life

G4G14

Conway's Game of Life

Nathaniel Johnston

Dave Greene

Conway’s Game of Life needs no introduction to fans of Martin Gardner. Numerous examples exist in which a GoL “spaceship” object sends out smaller objects (“gliders”, etc.) that move away from the generator at a constant speed. That speed is set by the underlying nature of the GoL’s generations, because each such object can move no faster -- generation to generation -- than the unit distance built into the GoL model itself. In fact, the maximum such speed of propagation is called c or “the speed of light” in GoL terminology. In a typical computer running a GoL in a lab, the unit of time in the GoL of course has no fixed relationship to the unit of time marked on the lab’s clock on the wall. If the lab personnel were to double the rate of GoL generations (relative to the clock on the wall), the speed at which a GoL glider moves across the screen is also doubled (relative to that clock), but within the GoL universe itself, there is no change in speed.

G14-027