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Everyone needs good neighbor
The following diagrams illustrate how the rules are implemented. Consider a cell (filled black square) occupies a square grid as shown below:
It can have a possibility of up to eight neighbors as numbered above. Note that a square is the simplest and most common form of grid to construct a World. Other form such as hexagon has also been used, with a
more complex set of rules. To see how cells kick into action from one Generation to another, consider the following example:
After one generation.
At current generation, grid labelled 3 will be occupied by a new cell in the next generation as the former is surrounded by cells 1, 5 and 6. Similarly, grid 4 will have a new cell in the next generation as it is surrounded by cells 6, 5 and 2.
Conversely, cells 1 and 2 will die of loneliness as each has only one neighbor (5 and 6, respectively). At this stage you may now understand the rules and figure out that grid 7 will be occupied by a new cell as it has 3 neighbors, while the two unlabelled cells
near to the top right corner will disappear in the next generation due to loneliness. It is therefore not difficult to work out the new colony pattern as shown in the Next generation diagram above.
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