Conway's Game of Life

One of the things complex systems theorists have come to understand is that the complex patterns we see in nature arise out of several components acting by a fairly simple set of rules. Conway's Game of Life is a program which illustrates this point (usually using just three rules, which I believe is standard although other rule-sets exist). Grasping this and other concepts about Complexity is key to understanding how a complex and intricate universe can emerge from such simple components.

After opening up the program at the address below, click on several squares in various patterns and then hit the "go" button. You may be surprised to see how complex the interactions can get!

http://www.ibiblio.org/lifepatterns/