Emergence describes how complex behaviors can arise from many parts following simple rules. Conway's Game of Life demonstrates emergent complexity through cells (cellular automata) that live or die based on their neighbors' states, creating intricate patterns and "organisms" over many iterations. While typically implemented on a flat grid with boundaries or wrap-around edges, this project may be the first to implement Life on a HEALPix sphere—a pixelization framework originally developed for cosmic microwave background radiation analysis.
This novel combination requires no modifications to Conway's original rules, as the HEALPix grid naturally provides each cell with eight neighbors. The result is a seamless Game of Life that evolves across a spherical surface, free from edge conditions or the topology-induced patterns seen in traditional torus-wrapped (donut) implementations. Built with Python and OpenGL, the visualization allows real-time interaction with the sphere and experimentation with the game's fundamental rules.
Previous work used a highly modified multi-state game of life as a logic for restorative urbanism; a movable built environment that replenishes soil through silvaculture and biological succession.