John Conway has passed away

[RedGolpe]

According to several sources close to his family, John Horton Conway died today of an illness related to the COVID pandemic. All I can say in this sad moment is that I am happy to know that his legacy will live on through us.

[Saka]

There actually already is a thread about this tragedy:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4417
LifeWiki has appropriately been given the black ribbon at the bottom right corner of every page.
...
This year has been bad, 2 prominent lifeenthusiasts have passed away (and hopefully no more than 2!)...

[Dylan Chen]

You bring the world with a new cosmos. A unique cosmos that can be defined by ourself.

Thank you for your genius invention and contribution. Not only as a prominent mathematician , as well as a friend of any GOL fans.


RIP, sir John•Horton•Conway

[pcallahan]

According to several sources close to his family, John Horton Conway died today of an illness related to the COVID pandemic. All I can say in this sad moment is that I am happy to know that his legacy will live on through us.

(Aside) I am also angry at any needless deaths caused by our delayed response to the pandemic. I won't try to politicize it in this inappropriate forum, because there is plenty of blame to go around, but assuming he died in New Jersey, as reported, that is a place where the outbreak could have been reduced substantially with quick action. (End aside)

There are no official sources to confirm Conway's death or the cause, at least that I've seen, but it does appear to be true. Oddly, all three coauthors of Winning Ways: Berlekamp, Conway, and Guy are now deceased within roughly a one year time frame. The year 2020 is the 50th anniversary of Conway's Game of Life (or at least its public announcement). It would have been nice to celebrate in style with the man himself. He was already quite ill from other causes, so I'm not sure what would have been appropriate.

[Freywa]

I am not mourning the death. I am not at all saddened by the fact that it was from Covid-19.

Conway was already in the rear view mirror when Catagolue came out. The original subjects of investigation in the early 70s have now been almost completely supplanted by modern research topics - glider syntheses and stable circuitry.

And so another star flickers out, like Guy and Berlekamp. Such is the cycle of life.

Oddly, all three coauthors of Winning Ways: Berlekamp, Conway, and Guy are now deceased within roughly a one year time frame. The year 2020 is the 50th anniversary of Conway's Game of Life (or at least its public announcement). It would have been nice to celebrate in style with the man himself. He was already quite ill from other causes, so I'm not sure what would have been appropriate.

This is normal. Lee Kuan Yew died in March 2015, and the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Republic of Singapore was in August 2015.

(Aside) Elwyn Berlekamp = Gollum (End aside)

[pcallahan]

I am not mourning the death. I am not at all saddened by the fact that it was from Covid-19.

Well, I am mourning his passing. 82 is not old today, though it is true he was in very poor health to begin with. Perhaps it was a swift and merciful end. Anyway, I don't get a say in that.

[moebius]

John Conway's passing is very sad to hear. He has had quite an influence on my life for almost 45 years.

I first read the Scientific American article in 1975. I squared off a large piece of paper and tried to work out the evolution of life patterns using poker chips. I was 12 at the time. I wrote my first Life program for a TRS80 in 1978 in BASIC. For my 6.111 project in 1983 I built a hardware Life machine out of series 74 logic that did 60 generations per second.

His work in group theory was immensely interesting. I own both the ATLAS of Finite Groups and Sphere Packings, Lattices, and Groups. I only had the opportunity to correspond with JHC once in the mid 90s. It was regarding the fact that (S6 X L34.2).2 was missing from the list of maximal subgroups of the Baby Monster in the ATLAS.

His work in sphere packings is related to the design of error correcting codes, an area in which I have made a living.

What JHC taught me is that there is a great deal of fun and beauty to be found in the study of mathematics, and for that lesson I will be eternally greatful.

He will be missed.

-Tim Coe

[pcallahan]

Princeton finally has an obituary out. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/04/ ... e-dies-age

[gamnamno]

82 is not old today,

There is no need to find excuses to be sad. Even when you're prepared for it or expect it anytime soon, when someone you like dies, it's sad. And it's nothing to do with it being abnormal or unnatural. Sure it can make it worse, but it shouldn't be the main reason.

[Entity Valkyrie 2]

Requiem.mc

(21.82 KiB) Downloaded 175 times

[pcallahan]

NYT had an article about Conway by his biographer Siobhan Roberts. The emphasis is on contributions other than Game of Life, but it's quite interesting. I had forgotten about the game Sprouts for many years. I remember that it was featured in the Piers Anthony novel Macroscope. I have never played.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/16/scie ... e=Homepage