About This Tool
Conway's Game of Life is a zero-player cellular automaton devised by mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. Starting from a simple seed pattern, cells on an infinite grid live or die each generation according to three rules: a live cell with 2–3 live neighbours survives, a live cell with fewer than 2 or more than 3 neighbours dies, and a dead cell with exactly 3 live neighbours becomes alive. Despite their simplicity, these rules produce astonishing complexity — gliders that travel across the grid, oscillators that pulse indefinitely, and patterns that grow without bound. This implementation uses a toroidal (wrap-around) grid so patterns never hit a wall.
How to Use
The simulation starts automatically with a randomly chosen classic seed pattern such as the Acorn, R-pentomino, or Glider.
Press Pause / Play to freeze or resume the evolution at any time.
Click Reset to start over with a new random seed pattern.
Use the Speed buttons (Slow / Normal / Fast) to control how many generations are computed per second.
Drag the canvas to pan around the grid and scroll (or pinch on mobile) to zoom in and out.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the three rules of Conway's Game of Life?
Birth: a dead cell with exactly 3 live neighbours becomes alive. Survival: a live cell with 2 or 3 live neighbours stays alive. Death: a live cell with fewer than 2 (underpopulation) or more than 3 (overpopulation) live neighbours dies.
What does "toroidal grid" mean?
The grid wraps around — cells on the right edge are neighbours of cells on the left edge, and cells on the top edge are neighbours of cells on the bottom edge. This prevents patterns from dying when they reach the boundary.
What are the seed patterns used?
Six classic patterns are used at random: R-pentomino, Acorn (grows for 5,000+ generations), Pi-heptomino, Glider, Diehard (dies after exactly 130 generations), and Thunderbird.
Is Conway's Game of Life Turing complete?
Yes. Researchers have constructed working logic gates, memory, and even a universal Turing machine entirely within the Game of Life using combinations of gliders and other patterns.