History VideoGame / ConwaysGameOfLife

* WrapAround: It is common for implementations of the Life grid to wrap around at the edges by transplanting the game on a torus, as otherwise the edge of the grid can interfere with the automaton (a cell at the edge can only have at most 5 neighbors, or 3 in the corners). However, other more exotic wrap arounds exists, such as playing the game on a sphere or a Klein bottle.

* RecursiveReality: Unit Cells are large patterns which, when set in a grid, are capable of computing the Game of Life itself by interacting with each others. More advanced variants are capable of simulating any life-like cellular automata, any non-totalistic rule, and even to "birth" and "die" like an actual cell. And yes, a large enough array of Unit Cells can simulate a Meta-Unit Cell, which may itself be part of a Meta-Meta-Unit Cell, and so on. [[https://oimo.io/works/life/ This website]] demonstrates the eternal recursion, with OTCA metapixels, that, when zoomed in, reveal themselves to be made of metapixels too, which are themselves made of smaller metapixels, endlessly.
* TimeAbyss: Engineered [[NoBodyLeftBehind diehards]] can reach truely absurd longevities before disappearing entirely. One of the longest known has a longevity that's not known exactly, but it's known to be higher than the 10^950th tetration of 121. [[ExaggeratedTrope Said otherwise, it's 121 to the 121th power, the result becoming the power of 121, itself becoming the power of 121, and so on, 10^950 times]]. Even with a computer capable of calculating googols of generations per second, it wouldn't even make a dent in this pattern's longevity if it ran until the end of the Universe.

* {{Tuckerization}}: The spaceship "doo-dah" was named after a nickname for the discoverer's grandfather, who had a collection of arrowheads.

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal:
** "Babbling brooks", "muttering moats", and "rumbling rivers" are all different categories of oscillators that can be made.
** The oscillators "tumbling T-tetson", "twirling T-tetson", and "turning toads".
** The "fast forward force field", a reaction that provides the illusion of a spaceship traveling faster than light.
* AllLowercaseLetters: The names of many search programs, including "apgsearch", "dr", "gfind" (and its derivatives "qfind" and "zfind"), "ikpx", "lifesrc", "ptbsearch", and "slmake", due to the fact that they are usually run from the command line.

** The pulsar was originally known as "[[UsefulNotes/{{Oxbridge}} Cambridge]] pulsar CP 48-56-72", in reference to the naming convention of the first RealLife pulsar, which was also discovered at Cambridge a few years earlier.

** Robert Wainwright's classification system for Life objects, first proposed in Volume 1 of Lifeline. Still lifes were categorized as Class I, oscillators were Class II, spaceships were Class III, glider guns (and presumably anything else exhibiting infinite growth) were Class IV, and unstable objects such as polyominoes were either Class V or Class VI depending on whether or not their fates had been fully determined.[[note]]Starting in Volume 2, Classes V and VI were merged together.[[/note]] Each of these were further subdivided depending on specific characteristics. Like many things of the Lifeline era, this scheme was mostly abandoned after the 1970s.
** The two distinct phases of a glider were originally referred to as [[GratuitousGreek "glider-α" and "glider-β"]] respectively.
* EmbarrassingInitials: A spin-off of the search program "ikpx" is called "dikpix", which stands for "'''D'''istributed '''I'''ncremental '''K'''nightship '''P'''artial '''I'''nteractive e'''[[ShoehornedFirstLetter X]]'''tender".
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin:
** Glider guns are usually named after their period (i.e. how often they produce gliders). The period-48 glider gun, for example, produces a glider once every 48 generations.
** Many oscillators consisting of small objects being "hassled" or "shuttled" by other objects are named after their period, the objects being interacted with, and the general type of interaction. Some examples are "p146 pi-heptomino hassler" and the "p56 B-heptomino shuttle".
** The statorless p3, statorless p5, and statorless p6 are all named for the fact that they do not contain any "stator" cells, or cells which stay alive forever.
** The T-nosed p4, p5, p6, and p7, as well as the p3, p4, p5, p6, and p7 pipsquirters. These are all named after the specific types of "sparks" they give off, which can interact with other patterns without disturbing the rest of the oscillator.
** Any name of the form "X on Y" usually refers to two objects placed relative to each other so that they interact in some way, whether to stabilize each other (in the case of still lifes) or to occasionally produce new cells whenever their phases align (in the case of oscillators).
** apgcodes, which are used by the search program apgsearch and its output database Catagolue as unambiguously identifiers for patterns exhibiting periodic behavior. (still lifes, oscillators, spaceships, etc.) The first part of an apgcode is a prefix describing what type of object it is along with its period and/or population, while the second part is an encoding of the pattern itself, allowing it to be recreated simply from its name.
** Signal conduits and converters are often named after their input and output objects, the output location and orientation of the resulting object, and/or the number of generations the conversion takes to complete.

* GratuitousFrench: One oscillator is named "en retard", which is French for "late".

* AKindOfOne:
** "Glider" usually refers to the iconic 5-cell spaceship with glide reflection symmetry, but is sometimes used to refer to spaceships in general, even ones that don't have glide symmetry.
** The caterpillar was the first macro-spaceship (i.e. large, self-supporting spaceship) to be constructed, and therefore other macro-spaceships, such as the silverfish and the waterbear, are occasionally also referred to as caterpillars despite being based on completely different mechanisms.

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous:
** There is [[ThemeNaming an entire group]] of patterns named after famous composers.
** The first oscillator discovered with a period of 23 was named after mathematician David Hilbert, who was known for his collection of 23 unsolved problems.
** The [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal fast forward force field]] is named after sci-fi writer [[Creator/RobertLForward Robert L. Forward]].
* NamedByDemocracy: When the discoverer of a notable pattern does not endorse a particular name for it, this is often how names catch on.
* NonIndicativeName: There's an object named "ship", but it's a still life despite sharing its name with the colloquial shortening of "spaceship".

* OneLetterName:
** All of the polyominoes (patterns where all cells are orthogonally connected) with 4 and 5 cells have single-letter names, as well as a few of the more notable ones with 6 and 7 cells. Examples include the T-tetromino, the R-pentomino, and the B-heptomino.
** In the context of single conduits and converters, certain common objects have single-letter names. Besides the aforementioned polyominoes, these include "G" for the glider, "H" for the Herschel, and "P" for the pi-heptomino, among others.
** "Big A", a tagalong which can be added to a pair of lightweight spaceships, is sometimes referred to as simply "A".
** At least five different S-shaped still lifes have been referred to as "S" at one point or another, though it most often refers to the 14-cell "big S".
* OneSteveLimit: Averted with the spaceship and still life both named "barge". There are also a spaceship and common object named "wing".

* PunnyName:
** The website Catagolue ("catalogue" + "[=GoL=]").
** The oscillators "aVerage",[[note]]Across the oscillator's five (V) phases, the average number of currently living cells within its oscillating portion is also five.[[/note]] "burloaferimeter",[[note]]The oscillator has seven phases, while a "bread loaf" (now known as simply a loaf) has seven cells.[[/note]] and "roteightor".[[note]]"rotator" + "eight", referring to the oscillator's period.[[/note]]

* ShoehornedFirstLetter: One popular search program is named "ikpx", which stands for "'''I'''ncremental '''K'''nightship '''P'''artial e'''X'''tender".
* ShoutOut: Patterns which are not called after their appearance sometimes have a name referencing pop culture.
** One example is [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail Sir Robin and its ministrels.]][[note]]This is because Sir Robin is a "knightship" (a spaceship that moves along an oblique slope identical to a knight in TabletopGame/{{chess}}), and since Sir Robin moves at one sixth of the knightwise speed of light (which means it does a knight move every 6 generations), which can be proved to be the maximum possible in Conway's Game of Life, it bravely runs away indeed![[/note]]
** Another example is the oscillator "[[Music/TheBeatles penny lane]]".
** The first period-19 oscillator was named "TabletopGame/{{cribbage}}", due to it being impossible for a hand to score exactly 19 points in that game.

* ThemeNaming: [[ThemeNaming/ConwaysGameOfLife Has its own page]].

* TheUnpronounceable: The oscillator "$rats". It's unclear how, or if, the dollar sign is supposed to be pronounced.
* VerberCreature: [[VerberCreature/ConwaysGameOfLife Has its own page]].

* WrapAround: It is common for implementations of the Life grid to wrap around at the edges by transplanting the game on a torus, as otherwise the edge of the grid can interfere with the automaton (a cell at the edge can only have at most 5 neighbors, or 3 in the corners). However, other more exotic wrap arounds exists, such as playing the game on a sphere or a klein bottle.
* YouAreNumberSix:
** The oscillator known as "sixty-nine", named for the fact that all four of its phases contain exactly 69 living cells each.
** The oscillator "101", named because one of its phases looks like the numerals 101.[[note]]Incidentally, when interpreted as binary, 101 also happens to be the oscillator's period (5).[[/note]]

* ShoutOut: Patterns which are not called after they appearance sometimes have a name referencing pop culture.

By carefully arranging cells in the Game of Life, it is even possible to build new things; "guns" which fire streams of "gliders" continuously, "reflectors" which can bounce gliders around, patterns that grow continuously, and more. Eventually, it was discovered that one can implement logical structures in the Game of Life and build a universal computer; that is, the Game of Life is Turing-complete. Conway also proved that it is possible to create a universal ''constructor'' in the Game of Life; that is, a pattern that can construct other patterns, including itself. Various attempts have been made to build such self-replicators.

* PlayerVersusPlayer: Some implementations of Conway's Game of Life (such as ''Game of Life and Death'' and ''Conway's Multiplayer Game of Life'') are in the form of a PvP game. In both of these games, players have a finite number of cells they can modify at a time, and the objective is generally to have more living cells than your opponent(s).

* ThemeNaming: [[ThemeNaming/TheGameOfLife Has its own page]].

* VerberCreature: [[VerberCreature/TheGameOfLife Has its own page]].

** Eaters are a class of patterns capable of destroying certain objects while repairing the resulting damage. The most common of them is the eater 1 or fishhook, which can destroy a variety of objects such as loaves, pre-beehives, gliders, blinkers, and can attack another eater to form a period 3 oscillator.

* {{Cap}}: The Speed of Light, known as "c" by analogy to real life, is the maximum speed at which an information of any sort can travel, whether it is a spaceship, a signal, or else. Due to the Game of Life using Moore neighbourhood, it is of 1 cell per generation, either orthogonally or diagonally. However, finite spaceships are constrained by lower limits. As such, it can be proved that their maximum orthogonal speed is c/2, their maximum diagonal speed is c/4, and their maximum knightwise speed (that is, how many generations it takes for a knightship to do a knight move) is c/6.

** One example is [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail Sir Robin and its ministrels.]][[note]]This is because Sir Robin is a "knightship" (a spaceship that moves along an oblique slope identical to a knight in chess), and since Sir Robin moves at one sixth of the knightwise speed of light (which means it does a knight move every 6 generations), which can be proved to be the maximum possible in Conway's Game of Life, it bravely runs away indeed![[/note]]

** The emphasis on "polyominoes", which are (usually unstable) patterns consisting entirely of orthogonally connected cells. The first issue of the Lifeline newsletter in 1971 even began with a request for readers to work out the evolutions of four "heptominoes" (7-cell polyominoes) whose fates had not yet been determined. Although many polyominoes are still extremely important, (such as the 5-cell R-pentomino, and the 7-cell pi-heptomino and B-heptomino) they are only polyominoes by happenstance, and in fact many of their smallest predecessors are ''not'' polyominoes.
** Robert Wainwright's classification system for Life objects, first proposed in Volume 1 of Lifeline. Still lifes were categorized as Class I, oscillators were Class II, spaceships were Class III, glider guns (and presumably anything else exhibiting infinite growth) were Class IV, and unstable objects such as polyominoes were either Class V or Class VI depending on whether or not their fates had been fully determined.[[note]]Starting in Volume 2, Classes V and VI were merged together.[[/note]] Each of these were further subdivided depending on specific characteristics.

* FasterThanLightTravel: The Fast Forward Force Field is a [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] example. While the reaction seems to make a LWSS briefly move at 11c/6, which is faster than the Speed of Light, a closer look reveals that the apparition of the "teleported" LWSS starts regardedless of the presence or not of an "about to be teleported" LWSS. Information within the reaction actually only travels at the Speed of Light to determine whether or not the "teleported" LWSS will fully form or be destroyed.

* RecursiveReality: Unit Cells are large patterns which, when set in a grid, are capable of computing the Game of Life itself by interacting with each others. More advanced variants are capable of simulating any life-like cellular automata, any non-totalistic rule, and even to "birth" and "die" like an actual cell. And yes, a large enough array of Unit Cells can simulate a Meta-Unit Cell, which may itself be part of a meta-meta-Unit Cell, and so on.

* NoPronunciationGuide: The oscillator "$rats". It's unclear how, or if, the dollar sign is supposed to be pronounced.

** The reverse caber-tosser, which Goucher was also heavily involved in creating, theoretically allows any conceivable glider synthesis to be encoded in a single glider.[[note]]Specifically, the glider's exact distance from the rest of the mechanism contains the data that allows an arbitrary glider synthesis to be recreated.[[/note]] As of July 2022, this proves that no pattern takes more than 16 gliders to synthesize, unless it is completely unsynthesizable. The problem is that the reverse caber-tosser takes a ''prohibitively'' long time to simulate, as the length of time the construction takes increases exponentially as the recipe gets longer. Even synthesizing a relatively simple object requires an extremely long recipe, as all the leftover debris has to be cleaned up somehow.

See [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life this page]] on Wiki/TheOtherWiki for more information.