The Beginning
A single pattern in the void. Five cells arranged in an R-pentomino configuration. From this simple seed, complexity will emerge.
↓ Scroll to evolve
Elementary Computation
One-dimensional cellular automata can be Turing complete. Rule 110 is capable of universal computation—infinite complexity from a single row of bits evolving through time.
Conway's Universe
Four simple rules create an infinite garden of patterns. Gliders travel across the void. Blinkers pulse in place. Pulsars radiate in perfect cycles. Still lifes rest eternal.
More Than The Sum
The whole exceeds its parts. From simple deterministic rules—birth, survival, death—arises behavior that seems almost alive. Patterns that move, reproduce, compute. Complexity emerging from simplicity. Order from chaos.
"The universe is a cellular automaton, and we are patterns that have learned to think."
The Heat Death
All patterns eventually stabilize or dissolve. The gliders escape to infinity. The oscillators lock into their cycles. The still lifes calcify. What remains is silence—a sparse constellation of stable forms in an empty grid.
This is how universes end.
Not with a bang, but with a blinker.