Life in life

Why HN readers recommended it

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

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

Phillip Bradbury

Topic

cellular automata

Format

demo

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

6

HN mentions in dataset

20

Recommendation years in dataset

2013–2025

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• I remember seeing that video 3 years ago and being blown away. In case someone doesn't already know it, here is Conway's Game of Life simulated in Conway's Game of Life: [VIDEO]

• This is an excellent link, well known in the "community" around this. To add to it, here's a famous and really clear sub-2 minutes representation of the scales involved if it helps make things clearer, for those who've never seen the scales involved: [VIDEO] (and …

• Here's a nice video showing OTCA metapixels in action, implementing Game of Life in Game of Life. [VIDEO] It would be amazing to see this Tetris computer rendered into a video like this.