So what is the
big fuss about Life? What makes it so important that it deserves hundreds
of entire websites dedicated to it?
Well, the study
and analysis of the game of Life, which is an example of the larger field
of cellular automata, can yield many potential benefits. These include
new applications of cellular automata such as developing better modeling
or simulation systems for biology, chemistry, and physics and in tackling
modern day problems like traffic in cities. Studies in these areas can
shed light on hard problems by providing new perspectives of approach
and also explain the complex behaviors of cells, animals, and various
other objects.
Life, as a simple
computational universe, can furthermore be used as a Turing Machine to
compute values while the cells still follow Conway's simple rules. Life
is also a work of art as it exhibits natural symmetry and unites mathematics
with the universe. Future developments in these fields will provide a
greater understanding of the world and allow further advances in the scientific
quest for knowledge.
The game of Life
exhibits certain qualities analogous to its real-life counterpart, the
biological and living world. At its most basic core, Life is simply a
representation of the many minute interactions of numerous small parts
based on a few simple rules. Thus leading to the idea that living things
are greater than the sum of their parts, that complexity is created. Emergent
properties of life appear in all living organisms as a result of tiny
chemical interactions, which build up to cellular interactions, to organs
and subsystems, to organisms, to communities, and finally to the entire
global system - all dependent on this layered development and interaction.
From simple rules, there develops greater layers of complexity just like
a computer's architecture that is layered in growing complexity. Life
seeks to find the fundamental "rules" of the universe, which can possibly
unite all the philosophies of science and thus allow mankind to achieve
a greater understanding of our world.
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