Each cell is either empty or contains a single organism. Every cell is considered to have eight neighboring cells with which it shares edges or corners. All others will die. Each currently empty cell that has three neighboring cells occupied by organisms will have an organism born into it in the next time step. Figure 1 displays a sequence of four time steps governed by those rules.
Patterns experience a variety of fates as time steps proceed.
The second pattern will glide through space as it goes through a repeating cycle of configurations. The third pattern will oscillate between two states, one vertical and the other horizontal. The fourth pattern, called a beehive, will remian stable forever as long as another pattern does not collide with it. Try a Game of Life applet.