Model-building and simulation

The applets are started by clicking the red buttons.


 
John Conway's Game of Life, which has first been published in Scientific American in 1970, is the simulation of a "model world" which, despite very simple rules, generates fairly complex structures and objects. It has played some role in many discussions (about the definition of life, "cellular automata", artificial intellegence and even about the role of the chromosomes). It has been programmed uncountably often. The websites in which specialists offer online versions of Game of Life range from
  • a small applet by Burt Rosenberg and Matt Mankins (University of Miami) over
  • a more capable version by Paul Callahan (John Hopkins University) with large "playing ground" and a Catalog of the amazing objects that inhabit this model world (entrance page: The Java-Animated Life Archive, also see the Glossary), to
  • a sophisticated approach by Alan Hensel, which is able to handle quite big objects. All these websites contain further exciting information, theory and philosophy as well as hints for other (related) model worlds. Also see
  • the pages about Game of Life by Eric W. Weisstein (University of Virginia), the
  • Life Lexicon by Stephen Silver (John Hopkins University) and the
  • review article by Mark Torrey (Alfred University).
For information about "cellular automata" and "artificial life" see the pages Further material and software may be found at the CelLab by Rudy Rucker and John Walker.

Clicking the red button calls a web page in a separate browser window, within which the applet is started. In case the browser window does not show the complete field, please maximize it by clicking the square symbol in the right upper corner.

It is designed for Netscape Navigator 4 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. In Netscape Navigator 3, considerable delay may occur when switching between the example patterns.



 
HighLife is a modification of John Conway's Game of Life (see the previous applet), which is also based on very simple rules. Here a "replicator" is known, i.e. an object which produces identical copies of itself. Further information about this and other modifications of the Game of Life may be found in the web literature given above.

Clicking the red button calls a web page in a separate browser window, within which the applet is started. In case the browser window does not show the complete field, please maximize it by clicking the square symbol in the right upper corner.

It is designed for Netscape Navigator 4 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. In Netscape Navigator 3, considerable delay may occur when switching between the example patterns.




  Gallery - Table of contents
Maths links:  online tools  topics  collections
Welcome Page