Inventing the Game of Life: Numberphile

In this fascinating interview, mathematician John H. Conway talks about his inspiration for the the creation of his Game of Life the simulation of life and death at an individual pixel level. Working in Cambridge, Conway devised the simulation to show how something complex could come about from a basic set of rules. The first iterations of the simulation were done without computers but instead done on a board game grid.

You can try it out for yourself using this online version.