Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- I Geometry
- II Number Theory and Graph Theory
- III Flexagons and Catalan Numbers
- IV Making Things Fit
- V Further Puzzles and Games
- 24 Cups and Downs
- 25 30 Years of Bulgarian Solitaire
- 26 Congo Bongo
- 27 Sam Loyd's Courier Problem with Diophantus, Pythagoras, and Martin Gardner
- 28 Retrolife and The Pawns Neighbors
- 29 RATWYT
- VI Cards and Probability
- VII Other Aspects of Martin Gardner
- Index
- About the Editors
28 - Retrolife and The Pawns Neighbors
from V - Further Puzzles and Games
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- I Geometry
- II Number Theory and Graph Theory
- III Flexagons and Catalan Numbers
- IV Making Things Fit
- V Further Puzzles and Games
- 24 Cups and Downs
- 25 30 Years of Bulgarian Solitaire
- 26 Congo Bongo
- 27 Sam Loyd's Courier Problem with Diophantus, Pythagoras, and Martin Gardner
- 28 Retrolife and The Pawns Neighbors
- 29 RATWYT
- VI Cards and Probability
- VII Other Aspects of Martin Gardner
- Index
- About the Editors
Summary
Martin Gardner created no less than a revolution in the popularization of mathematics through his many books, and, in particular, his Scientific American columns. Some of his most important columns, which spurred not only popular interest but also a wealth of innovative research and even practical applications, were his columns describing John Conway's “Game of Life” [5, 6]. Gardner himself said [7],
Probably my most famous column was the one in which I introduced Conway's game of Life. Conway had no idea, when he showed it to me, that it was going to take off the way it did. He came out on a visit, and he asked me if I had a Go board. I did have one, and we played Life on the Go board. He had about 50 other things to talk about besides that. I thought that Life was wonderful-a fascinating computer game. When I did the first column on Life, it really took off. There was even an article in Time magazine about it.
“It really took off” is an understatement.
The Game of Life
The “Game of Life” was invented in 1970 by British mathematician John Conway. It is best described as the archetype of cellular automata. The player (there is only one) places an initial distribution of checkers on an infinite checkerboard; one checker per square. The squares are called cells and the initial distribution is called a population.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Martin Gardner in the Twenty-First Century , pp. 207 - 212Publisher: Mathematical Association of AmericaPrint publication year: 2012