It's spaceships all the way down

March 23, 2024 12:30 PM

Need some mesmerization in your life? Gaze deep into Life Universe, a zoomable, infinitely-recursive Game of Life simulator [technical explanation]. Inspired by the classic video Life In Life and the OTCA Metapixel (previously). From shr, the developer behind Bubbles (previously), Blob (previously), and a wide variety of other fascinating and fun physics web toys.
posted by Rhaomi (7 comments total)

When I was teaching myself to program, one of the first bigger things I did after the basic stuff like finding prime numbers, was Conway's Game of Life. I read about it in a Scientific American column by Martin Gardner. So this is Life written in Life? I don't think my Commodore 64 would have handled it.
posted by pracowity at 1:10 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]

D'oh -- only just noticed that "a wide variety of other fascinating and fun physics web toys" should be linking to this page showing all the demos. >_<
posted by Rhaomi at 3:59 PM on March 23

Very nicely written post, Rhaomi, thank you. The demo is good fun and the explanation is really excellent.
posted by Nelson at 4:45 PM on March 23

I knew Hashlife was somehow involved. Wild.
posted by credulous at 10:01 PM on March 23

Someone notify Douglas Hofstadter!
posted by Ishbadiddle at 7:54 AM on March 24

I haven't thought about Life in a long time. Thanks. It tickles my brain.
posted by Goofyy at 10:19 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]

Life with time as the z axis
posted by lalochezia at 8:28 PM on March 29 [1 favorite]