Game of Life
Spinner-driven family pastime
Game of Life refers to two distinct things.
The board game, created by Milton Bradley in 1860 and revised in 1960, simulates a person's journey through life—college, career, marriage, children—with players spinning a wheel and following a winding track toward retirement.
Separately, Conway's Game of Life is a cellular automaton devised by mathematician John Conway in 1970, where cells on a grid live, die, or multiply based on simple rules, producing complex emergent patterns from minimal input.
The game requires no players after setup—it simply runs.
Despite sharing a name, the two have nothing in common beyond the word "life."
Place name, several locations
- gridFramework of intersecting lines
- cellsBasic biological units
- gliderUnpowered flying craft
- oscillatorCyclic signal generator
blinker · beacon · pulsar · spaceship · generations · neighbors · birth · death
Coming into the world
- deathCessation of life
- consciousnessState of sentient awareness
- purposeReason something exists
- meaningWhat something signifies
existence · mortality · choices · fate · destiny · journey · milestones · suffering
Thing that rotates
- spacesGaps or open areas
- tokensCurrency substitutes
- carsMotor vehicles for travel
- moneyCurrency for transactions
retirement · career · salary · insurance · loans · houses · college · jobs
Finite problem-solving procedure
- modelingSimulating or demonstrating form
- programmingWriting software instructions
- emulationCopying to rival
- softwarePrograms directing computer operations
rendering · physics engine · virtual environment · emergent behavior · parameters · iteration · randomness · probability
Conway
Place name, several locations
oscillator · blinker · beacon · pulsar · spaceship · generations · neighbors · birth · death · survival
birth
Coming into the world
- deathCessation of life
- consciousnessState of sentient awareness
- purposeReason something exists
meaning · existence · mortality · choices · fate · destiny · journey · milestones · suffering · joy
spinner
Thing that rotates
money · retirement · career · salary · insurance · loans · houses · college · jobs · payday
algorithm
Finite problem-solving procedure
- modelingSimulating or demonstrating form
- programmingWriting software instructions
- emulationCopying to rival
software · rendering · physics engine · virtual environment · emergent behavior · parameters · iteration · randomness · probability · variables
- tabletop gamesbackgammon, chess, checkers, Carcassonne, Go
- Cellular Automataglider, oscillator, spaceship, blinker, beehive
- 90s ToysFurby, Tamagotchi, Skip-It, Super Soaker, Tickle Me Elmo
- programming languagesC, C++, BASIC, C#, Java
Game of LifeGo
Territory-capturing board game
Checkers · Stratego · Othello · Settlers of Catan · Connect Four
Game of LifeDungeons & Dragons
Fantasy tabletop roleplaying game
game, games, gamed, gaming, gamer, gamers, gameplay, life, lives