Conway’s Game of Life is a cellular automaton. Its universe is described as a two-dimensional grid in which each cell is either alive or dead.
This project implements it in JavaScript to observe how a set of local rules produces patterns that change over time.
From one generation to the next
A cell’s next state depends on its neighbours. To produce a complete generation, every decision must use the same previous state rather than a mixture of updated and pending cells.
A browser implementation uses a finite representation. The grid’s size and the way its boundaries behave are part of that adaptation of the model.
Observe before changing
Try different starting arrangements and watch them evolve. The source code connects the visible changes to the board’s representation and update process.