17 While most may only use this as a party trick, Conway took it to another level. He challenged himself to calculate ten random dates to log on to his computer and set a goal of doubling his speed every five years [6]. His record was an impressive 15.92 seconds! Audioactive Sequences By now, some of you may recall that we previously covered another piece of Conway’s recreational mathematics work in Issue 023: audioactive sequences, in which the next term in a series is generated by reading aloud the preceding term (Footnote 1). Conway discovered some intriguing properties of these sequences and described them with chemistry jargon, but we won't delve into that here to avoid spoilers for those who have not read the article. “Serious Mathematics” Although Conway’s name is often associated with mathematical games and puzzles, most notably the Game of Life, it would be unjust to overlook his significant contribution to numerous branches of “serious mathematics” including group theory, higherdimensional geometry, tessellations, knot theory, number theory, abstract algebra, mathematical logic and analysis [7]. In fact, Conway himself considered his invention of the “surreal numbers” to be his greatest achievement [3, 4]. This new number system encompasses all real numbers, including integers, fractions, and irrational numbers, as well as “infinitely small” and “infinitely large” numbers. As was often the case, Conway's inspiration for the surreal numbers came from his contemplation of the rules of a game. It was the game of Go on this occasion. Concluding Remark Whether it was to the mathematical community, game enthusiasts worldwide, or the Princeton campus, Conway's passing due to COVID-19 complications in 2020 was a great loss. Nonetheless, his spirit of viewing mathematics as a form of play continues to inspire. This enduring legacy is perhaps best exemplified by the recent discovery in the Game of Life of the two long missing repeating patterns that repeat itself after 19 and 41 “generations” respectively [1]. 生命遊戲 如果你是生命遊戲（The Game of Life）的資深愛 好者，定能一眼認出這就是著名的「高斯帕滑翔翼機關槍」 1. Editor’s note: For example, the sequence 1, 11, 21, 1211, … is an audioactive sequence which can be read as “one 1, two 1’s, one 2 one 1, …” Similar to the Game of Life, Conway and math lovers seriously investigated the pattern of numbers emerged from the puzzle. 2. 存活：一個活格子在有兩至三個活格子為鄰時存活。 1. 誕生：一個死格子在有三個活格子為鄰時獲得生命。 3. 死亡（人口過少）：一個活格子在只有一個或沒有活格子 為鄰時死亡。 4. 死亡（人口過剩）：一個活格子在有四個或以上活格子 為鄰時死亡。 （Gosper glider gun）。但對新手來說，你可能會驚訝 地發現這個栩栩如生的動畫效果（不斷發射滑翔機的機 關槍）竟僅建基於一組看似簡單的規則 [1]（表一）。玩家 開始遊戲前需指定一個「起始圖案」，該圖案將根據規則 在每個回合（或稱為「世代」）「進化」。一些忠實粉絲對 遊戲產生的圖案進行了分類，彙編了包含所有特殊「生命 形態」的圖鑑。 表一 生命遊戲的四個規則 [1]。每格均有八個「鄰居」。灰色方格 代表活格子，藍色方格則代表死格子。
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDk5Njg=