The Cellular Universe

Press 'u' to reveal the current rule. Each rule is a seperate universe with its own unique physics. The rules are divided into survive and born rule subsets.

The columns represent the total number of black cells surrounding a particular cell (neighbouring cells); rows represent black cells one cell removed (next-neighbours).

For example, survive (row = 2, col = 4) means that a black ('live') cell will remain black in the next generation if 2 neighbours and 4 next-neighbours are black; born (row = 3, col = 15) means that a white ('dead') cell will turn black in the next generation if 3 neighbours and 15 next-neighbours are black.

The cellular universe is intitialised with Conway's celebrated game of life ruleset.

You can define different rulesets by pressing buttons; 'u' toggles board/rule panel.

Click on cells or drag mouse to set an initial configuration and then press spacebar to see how your universe evolves.

'e': toggles erase mode - drag mouse to rub-out black cells; 's': step by step evolution (press spacebar to advance to the next generation); 'g': game of life ruleset; 'a': random configuration; 'c': clear board; 'd': saves configuration to a png image file.