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Honestly one of the most touching tributes for John Conway - and of course it& #39;s by xkcd https://xkcd.com/2293/ ">https://xkcd.com/2293/&quo...
There are two beautiful details - when the Glider went towards the edge, I naturally glanced to the lower left waiting to see it reappear. This would be a & #39;closed universe& #39; Game of Life and the Glider would keep wrapping around this finite sized Universe. But instead... 1/n
...it disappears, implying that the grid is infinite! The second detail is that Randal made sure the border lies in the middle of a pixel, with the the next few frames of the animation implying the Glider is continuing on into a grid with the same rules... 2/n
...ensuring the reader can get the implied infinite Life grid. I realised that it& #39;s far better that the Glider travels on into an unknown Life grid, rather than in a finite edge wrapped grid. It seems more satisfying that way. Like many computer nerds, I coded up Conway& #39;s ...3/n
..Game of Life on my ZX Spectrum in the 1980& #39;s after reading about it in an old issue of Scientific American ( https://www.ibiblio.org/lifepatterns/october1970.html).">https://www.ibiblio.org/lifepatte... It was my first glimpse of complexity from very simple rules, and I spent some time trying out random grids to see what worked.... 4/n
..and what did not. I moved on, but many other people developed logic gates in Life and ultimately computers that ran Life in Life, and many other wondrous creations that I wish I had the patience to explore myself. It& #39;s a beautiful & #39;aha!& #39; moment for many coders. And as for.. 5/n
...John Conway, the amazing Numberphile by @BradyHaran talked to him about it. He gives the impression of a pop star tired of being referred to by his One Hit Wonder - but WOW what a hit :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Plq-D1gEk">https://www.youtube.com/watch... 6/n
..go watch it for the quotes: "Over about 18 months of coffee times..."
"From my point of view though, it wasn& #39;t real mathematics..."
Thank you John Conway.
"From my point of view though, it wasn& #39;t real mathematics..."
Thank you John Conway.
Postscript: And there& #39;s a @numberphile podcast on him with more interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsecAiJDI8s&list=PLt5AfwLFPxWIL8XA1npoNAHseS-j1y-7V&index=8&t=0s">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
