thumb|right|A single Gosper's Glider Gun creating "gliders" in Conway's Game of Life Conway invented the Game of Life, one of the early examples of a cellular automaton. His initial experiments in that field were done with pen and paper, long before personal computers existed. Since Conway's game was popularized by Martin Gardner in Scientific American in 1970, it has spawned hundreds of computer programs, web sites, and articles. It is a staple of recreational mathematics. The LifeWiki is devoted to curating and cataloging the various aspects of the game. From the earliest days, it has been a favorite in computer labs, both for its theoretical interest and as a practical exercise in programming and data display. Conway came to dislike how discussions of him heavily focused on his Game of Life, feeling that it overshadowed deeper and more important things he had done, although he remained proud of his work on it. The game helped to launch a new branch of mathematics, the field of cellular automata.MacTutor History: The game made Conway instantly famous, but it also opened up a whole new field of mathematical research, the field of cellular automata. The Game of Life is known to be Turing complete.
thumb|right|A single Gosper's Glider Gun creating "gliders" in Conway's Game of Life Conway invented the Game of Life, one of the early examples of a cellular automaton His initial experiments in that field were done with pen and paper long before personal computers existed. Since Conway's game was popularized by Martin Gardner in Scientific American in 1970, it has spawned hundreds of computer programs, web sites, and articles. It is a staple of recreational mathematics. The LifeWiki is devoted to curating and cataloging the various aspects of the game. From the earliest days, it has been a favorite in computer labs both for its theoretical interest and as a practical exercise in programming and data display. Conway came to dislike how discussions of him heavily focused on his Game of Life, feeling that it overshadowed deeper and more important things he had done, although he remained proud of his work on it. The game helped to launch a new branch of mathematics, the field of cellular automata.MacTutor History: The game made Conway instantly famous, but it also opened up a whole new field of mathematical research, the field of cellular automata. The Game of Life is known to be Turing complete.