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HighLife cellular automaton
HighLife
Explore HighLife, a Life-like cellular automaton where one additional birth condition makes simple self-replication possible.
Watch one extra birth rule change the world
HighLife differs from Conway's Life by one condition: dead cells with six neighbours are also born. That small change permits self-replicating patterns.
What to watch: compare familiar Life-like structures and watch the Replicator produce copies rather than merely move or oscillate.
Explanatory notes
- B36 means a dead cell is born with exactly three or six live neighbours.
- S23 means a live cell survives with two or three live neighbours, just as it does in Conway's Life.
- Conway Life uses B3/S23; HighLife's single extra B6 condition permits a small pattern to replicate itself.
- The canonical Replicator produces two copies after 12 generations and continues expanding along a diagonal.