On the Subject of Game of Life 3D

Life-and-death scenarios aren’t limited to the second dimension, y’know.

A 3×3×3 arrangement of black and white cells will be floating in front of the module. Apply the rules of Conway’s Game of Life to the arrangement of cells once, then enter this generation into the module. When pressed, the arrows surrounding the cells will rotate the formation 90 degrees in their respective directions. You may do this to get a better view of the arrangement of cells.

Click a cell to toggle its state. The button labelled RESET will return the module to its initial state; the button labelled CLEAR will make all of the cells black. Both of these buttons will reset the rotation of the arrangement of cells.

Centre cells are adjacent to all cells on the same face. An edge cell is adjacent to the two corner cells, two centre cells and four edge cells closest to it (creating a “square” of cells that straddles the edge of the formation). A corner cell is adjacent to the three edge cells and three centre cells closest to it (creating a “hexagon” of cells surrounding it). There is no cell in the centre of the arrangement.

Conway’s Game of Life Rules

• Alive cells will stay alive if they have two or three alive neighbours, otherwise they will die.
• Dead cells will be born if they have exactly three alive neighbours, otherwise they will stay dead.
• White cells are considered alive. Black cells are considered dead.