Conway's game of life is played on a grid or two dimensional array. The rules are quite simple. Every square is referred to as a cell. A cell's neighbors are the 8 squares surrounding that cell. A cell can either be referred to as alive or dead.
Dead cells are traditionally white, live cells black.
If a live cell has two or three neighbors it will remain alive on the next iteration. If it has less than two neighbors it is said to die of loneliness, If it has three or more neighbors it is said to die of overcrowding. One might think that these simple rules would produce simple patterns. After all there is no random element to cause the chaotic effects we normally associate with life. If you watch the applet, however, the overall effect is to watch five simple cells degenerate into a seemingly random pattern, and then, without warning, suddenly stabilize into a collection of simple shapes and blinkers.