CCC 2016: Circle of Life
APL (Dyalog),14 bytes



Prompts for start state as Boolean list and then for number of iterations

(1∘⌽≠¯1∘⌽)⍣⎕⊢⎕


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⎕ numeric prompt (for Boolean list of start state)

⊢ on that, apply

(…)⍣⎕ the following tacit function, numeric-prompt times

 ¯1∘⌽ the argument rotated one step right

 ≠ different from (XOR)

 1∘⌽ the argument rotated one step left