All Systems Red

A wonderful novella by Martha Wells, beautifully published by Artline Studios. The book is tiny and is a quick read. It’s about a very human murder bot whose job is to protect a group of planetary explorers. I’ll probably wait for the translations because the hardcover is so pretty.

The suggestion for this book came from a fellow blogger and friend @dni.

5/5, and the best book I read this month so far.

Life in Life

I was mind-blown to learn that the Game of Life can have a pattern that plays the Game of Life.

The idea that Game of Life can play itself is not new. It has existed at least since 1996 (also here). By 2006, a grid like the one above existed. I learned about Game of Life around 2008-2009. By then, engineers played with the idea of Game of Life which played itself for over a decade. By 2018, a self-replicating metacell existed so a grid like the above would grow indefinitely.

I re-read the Wikipedia article about Game of Life every 3-4 years, it keeps getting better and better.