The recursive universe
No winners, no losers, and no end - the Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is no ordinary computer game. Created by British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970, Life debuted in Scientific American, where it was hailed as the key to a new area of mathematical research, the field of cellular automata. Less of a game than a demonstration of logical possibilities, Life is based on simple rules and produces patterns of light and dark on computer screens that reflect the unpredictability, complexity, and beauty of the universe. This popular science journey explores Life's relationship to concepts in information theory, explaining the application of natural law to random systems and demonstrating the necessity of limits. Other topics include the paradox of complexity, Maxwell's demon, Big Bang theory, and more.
Stats for nerds
7recommend
11mentions
9people
2010–2025years
82% recommend18% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Your first question is discussed in the book The Recursive Universe by William Poundstone (1984).
One of the chapters asks "what is life?". It considers (and rejects) various options, and finally settles upon a definition based on Von Neumann-style self-replicating machines using blueprints and universal constructors, and explains why this is the most (only?) meaningful definition of life.
Later, it talks about how one would go about creating such a machine in Conway's Game of Life. When the book was written in 1984, no one had actually created one (they need to be very large, and computers weren't really powerful enough then). But in 2010 Andrew J. Wade created Gemini, the first successful self-replicating machine in GoL, which I believe meets the criteria - and hence is "alive" according to that definition (but only in the sense that, say, a simple bacteria is alive). And I think it works somewhat like how it was sketched out in the book.
Another chapter estimated how big (and how densely populated) a randomly-initialized hypothetical GoL universe would need to be in order for "life" (as defined earlier) to appear by chance. I don't recall the details - but the answer was mind-boggling big, and also very sparsely populated.
All that only gives you life though, not intelligence. But life (by this definition) has the potential to evolve through a process of natural selection to achieve higher levels of complexity and eventually intelligence, at least in theory.
- Simply fantastic. I love Conway's Game of Life. This page makes it easy to observe a huge variety of creative patterns.
The book "The Recursive Universe" by William Poundstone is a fun look into the Game of Life, pairing observations and thoughts about the game with real world physics and life.
- The blog post was inspired by The Recursive Universe by William Poundstone. I read this book years ago and found it amazing. I recently read another book by him, Fortune’s Formula, which features the Kelly Criterion, Claude Shannon beating roulette, card counting in blackjack, and the surprising origins of Warner Bros. Recommended for sure. Thanks to the HN poster who suggested it.
- Thanks for this recommendation. I just bought the book. Years ago, I read Poundstone's "The Recursive Universe" and loved it so his writing combined with this subject should be great.
- A must-read for fans of Conway's Game of Life and laypersons looking for an approachable read. It covers both the history of GoL, and its implications for understanding the nature of Life itself:
"The Recursive Universe: Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge" https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809252023/ref=as_li_ss_il...
(Strip the affiliate code off if you like!)
- > 1. The Recursive Universe: Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge - Poundstone, William
Wonderful, I have never once in my life encountered another person who has read this book. I first read it as a student in the '90s and, like "Godel, Escher, Bach" and "QED", it made such an impact on me.
Strangely, just yesterday I found myself recommending it to someone who is currently reading the new John Conway biography and had questions about the Game of Life.
