hackertube.io

Life in life

Phillip Bradbury · demo · Watch on YouTube

Computability & complexity theoryRecreational & visual math

What it is

A two-minute video of Conway's Game of Life running inside Conway's Game of Life, built from OTCA metapixels and Golly. It zooms smoothly between scales.

Why Hacker News recommends it

The canonical visual for nested simulation, Turing completeness and self-reference; HN readers call it mind-blowing and reach for it constantly.

  • 6 people recommended it
  • 6 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2013, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “I remember seeing that video 3 years ago and being blown away.”

    Game of Life simulated in Game of Life

    lqet, 2020-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Building a computer in Conway's game of life”

  2. “here's a famous and really clear sub-2 minutes representation of the scales involved”

    Famous clear sub-2 minute representation of the scales involved

    pierreyoda, 2023-01 · Strong recommendation · in “Tetris Is Capable of Universal Computation”

  3. “Here's a nice video showing OTCA metapixels in action, implementing Game of Life in Game of Life.”

    OTCA metapixels implementing Game of Life in Game of Life

    avian, 2017-09 · Recommendation · in “Building a working game of Tetris in Conway's Game of Life”

  4. “has a much-needed youtube video of the metapixels”

    Video of metapixels from an earlier post

    Groxx, 2020-04 · Recommendation · in “Build a Working Game of Tetris in Conway's Game of Life (2014)”

  5. “I've seen "life in life" as a video from ages ago”

    Earlier Life in Life video

    fishtoaster, 2022-12 · Recommendation · in “Recursive Game of Life”

  6. “Here's the game of life running in the game of life”

    Game of Life running in Game of Life using Golly

    zamalek, 2025-02 · Recommendation · in “Ask HN: What's the best implementation of Conway's Game of Life?”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: game of life, otca metapixel, golly, turing completeness, nested simulation

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