Mathematicians, professors, and others reflect on Game of Life, a simulation game devised in 1970, and its lasting influence on the field of cellular automata (Siobhan Roberts/New York Times)

Siobhan Roberts / New York Times:
Mathematicians, professors, and others reflect on Game of Life, a simulation game devised in 1970, and its lasting influence on the field of cellular automata  —  Fifty years on, the mathematician's best known (and, to him, least favorite) creation confirms that “uncertainty is the only certainty.”