Conway's "Game of Life" ... when invented?

From: KENNETH S HALEY <haleyk_at_okstate.edu>
Date: Mon Jul 26 10:36:06 1999

Steve Levy's book 'artifical life' could probably pinpoint it down to a
specific year (my copy is in college storage boxes somewhere) but early to
mid 1960s Oxford, England seems to ring a bell. It was originally played
by having grad students move the pieces by hand on lunch and coffee
breaks. The board eventually grew in size to all over the tables and
floors.

Levy's book 'Hackers' also mentions the MIT train club group writing CA
code on the early PDP boxes. Naturally, this would have been a few years
after Oxford.

As a finale, self-replicating CA structures were invented by a guy in a
LANL working group (see 'artifical life') with an Apple.

--scott
Received on Mon Jul 26 1999 - 10:36:06 BST