5 ms·
I've just read a fantastic biography of him: https://siobhanroberts.com/genius-at-play/ https://siobhanroberts.com/genius-at-play/ He was thoroughly sick of th
by mkl 5y ago
I've just read a fantastic biography of him: https://siobhanroberts.com/genius-at-play/ https://siobhanroberts.com/genius-at-play/
He was thoroughly sick of the Game of Life from soon after its discovery and fame via Martin Gardner's article. Once it was proved to be Turing complete, so "everything" was possible, it became uninteresting to him.
- OscarCunningham 5y agoThey missed the opportunity to call it 'Conway's Life of Games'! There are many open problems about Life that universality doesn't answer, such as whether there exists an oscillator of every period. There was a problem posed by Conway himself that was solved just this year! https://cp4space.hatsya.com/2022/01/14/conway-conjecture-settled/ https://cp4space.hatsya.com/2022/01/14/conway-conjecture-set...
- mkl 5y agoYes. "Genius at Play" does fit very well though, as does the double meaning of "curious" in the subtitle "The curious mind of John Horton Conway".
- ColinWright 5y agoHe went through a phase of being sick of it, but towards the last years he came back to it a bit. It was fun watching him and Bill Gosper talking about some of the finer points.