Conway's Game of Life

Here's something scientific and arty at the same time.

Its a.... no idea what it is really... you put some dots on a grid, and then start the program. Then the dots evolve.

http://www.ibiblio.org/lifepatterns/

Try it! Click on the 'enjoy life' button on the top left of the page, and then put a few dots on the grid by clicking anywhere on the grid. I'd say try a few clumps of more than 10. After a few tries, you'll see things evolving. Often you'll get little patterns appearing, pulsars pulsating and gliders floating off on their own.

The program works on these rules:

1. a dot = alive
   
2. no dot = dead
   
3. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.
   
4. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
   
5. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
   
6. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
   

Check which patterns you get here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life

Surprisingly, there's lots of scientists who study these patterns that appear, apparently randomly, and have dedicated their lives to this 'virtual life' (not including me, I hasten to add!).

:-)

Edit: stupid joke