articles that explain Conway's game of life

Question

For a few days I have been studying the game of life, I would like to understand it better from a mathematical point of view. I am looking for an article that talks about it without neglecting the mathematical reasons why it is important and as accessible as possible to a student with only a basic knowledge of mathematics. I write in search of advice, good day to all readers!

Answer 1

Davide, here is an equation for Conways game of life.

http://www.buzwordsalad.com/mfile/gol/conways_game_of_life.png

Here is the m-file to see how it works.

http://www.buzwordsalad.com/mfile/gol/gun_glider.m

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I am also interested in the game of life and the more general concept of cellular automata. This article served as a nice introduction for me. It is kinda short, and contains many references that you can follow.

If you are interested in the game of life, I would also recommend looking into the more general concept of cellular automata. One entry-point might be this brief article. It also contains references that you can follow.

By chance, I also stumbled upon this thread about cellular automata here on MSE. There you can see what references the experts on MSE recommend on the topic, and one of the links leads to a set of lecture notes which are available for free. Note that the lecture notes actually start out with discussing the game of life :)