Abstract
The background material is presented giving a description of Conway’s Game of Life, Turing machines and Counter Machines. The details of the rules for Game of Life are given along with the details of some of the most well known patterns. The operational cycle of a Turing machine is explained as well as an outline for a universal Turing machine. A simple Turing machine is presented while introducing the notation used to describe Turing machines in later chapters. Counter machines are described with an example instruction set and very simple program. Conway’s proof of the universality of the Game of Life is outlined with descriptions of the logical components he proposed.
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Rendell, P. (2016). Background. In: Turing Machine Universality of the Game of Life. Emergence, Complexity and Computation, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19842-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19842-2_2
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