Editing 2293: RIP John Conway

{{comic
| number    = 2293
| date      = April 13, 2020
| title     = RIP John Conway
| image     = rip_john_conway.gif
| titletext = 1937-2020
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a GLIDER. Needs more in-depth explanation of how the Game Evolves. Include remaining stills from the GIF in the table below. Should also expand more on why Conway is a person of note. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|John Horton Conway|John Conway}}, an English mathematician, passed away of {{w|COVID-19}} on April 11th 2020. Two days later, [[Randall]] created this memorial comic. It is the 6th memorial comic, but it is the first released in almost 5 years, since [[1560: Bubblegum]].

One of Conway's most famous creations was {{w|Conway's Game of Life}}, which consists of a grid of square cells with rules for how they change over time.

In a given generation, each cell can either be ''alive'' or ''dead'' (empty). To compute the grid for the next generation, each cell is affected only by the eight cells adjacent to it, both orthogonal and diagonal to it.  Those are its neighbors.  The rules are:
*A live cell with no live neighbors, or only one neighbor, will die of isolation.
*A live cell with four or more live neighbors will die of overcrowding.
*Therefore, the only cells that survive have exactly two or three live neighbors.
*In addition, a new cell is "born" in each empty cell with exactly three live neighbors.

Although the rules are simple, enormously complex patterns can develop from them, such as "still lifes" (which do not change over generations), "oscillators" (which cycle repeatedly through a set of patterns over a specific period), and "spaceships" (which reproduce their own pattern at an offset from the original).

This comic begins with the shape of a stick figure as the starting configuration, which then evolves according to the rules of the Game of Life. The pattern breaks into three parts, two of which stay at the same level as the original figure's feet before rapidly melting away, and a third (called a "glider") that ascends up and to the right. Randall may be suggesting a soul breaking away from the rapidly disintegrating corporeal remains here.

The initial state of the game presented in the comic *does*, in fact, evolve as depicted, according to the rules above.

The title text simply state Conway's birth and death year: 1937-2020. He was still 82 years old as his birthday is December 26th, see [[2248: New Year's Eve]].

==Table of generations==
{| class="wikitable"
!Generation
!Notes
|-
|[[File:Generation 0.jpg|thumb]]||Starting state (or "zeroth generation").
|-
|[[File:Generation 1.jpg|thumb]]||First generation.  Note that this image is not aligned with the previous one: the position of all cells has shifted downward by one cell.  All further generations are aligned the same as this one.
|-
|[[File:Generation 2.jpg|thumb]]||Second generation.
|-
|[[File:Generation 3.jpg|thumb]]||Third generation.
|-
|[[File:Generation 4.jpg|thumb]]||Fourth generation.
|-
|[[File:Generation 5.jpg|thumb]]||Fifth generation.
|-
|[[File:Generation 6.jpg|thumb]]||Sixth generation.  The first appearance of the glider, a well-known formation in Conway's Game of Life.
|-
|[[File:Generation 7.jpg|thumb]]||Seventh generation.  The glider takes on its other shape.
|-
|[[File:Generation 8.jpg|thumb]]||Eighth generation.  The glider returns to its first shape, pointing right instead of up.
|-
|[[File:Generation 9.jpg|thumb]]||Ninth generation.  The glider's second shape again, pointing right instead of up.
|-
|[[File:Generation 10.jpg|thumb]]||Tenth generation.  The glider is now in its original form, but one cell higher and one cell to the right.  It will continue to progress, cycling through these four states every four generations.  The remains of the chaos down below will take two more generations to disappear completely.
|}

==Transcript==
:[A pixelated image of a stick figure using 21 pixels, could be a pixel Cueball, which waves with one hand up while holding the other hand down. The head consist of 7 pixels, the top row of three having two pixels beneath the two outer pixels, thus having two empty pixels beneath the central pixel. The neck and torso is a typical cross made from six pixels. The two legs are to pixels each shifted left and right of the cross. The arm to the left that waves is two pixels one down and the next back up to the level of the cross central beam. The arm to the right has the first pixel similarly but the second pixel continues one further step down. After less than one second it turns out that the image is animated, with the pixels changing according to the rules of Conway's Game of Life. The figure splits into three groups, two of which dissipates in a similar way at the bottom of the panel. The other becomes a 'glider' and moves off to the top-right corner of the image and out of the frame. The animation then repeats.]

{{comic discussion}}

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