Conway's experiment: simultaneous grid change

[Alex_P]

Hi,
In Conway's experiment it is said that the changes in the grid happen simultaneously between each tick. How is it possible for the changes to happen simultaneously since all cells are dependent to one another ? Can anyone explain this and give an example ?

Thank you in advance,
Alex

Source:
http://www.experimentgarden.com/2009/07/conways-game-of-life.html

 

[mfb]

The state after a step depends on the state of the cells before that step. Where is the problem? To realize this in a computer, you just have to store the previous states until all new states are calculated.

As a simplified example, you can use a 2-cell system with (as an example) the rule "the left cells is the sum of the two cells in the previous step, the right cell is the difference" and make the following table (where each row is one step):

2  1
3  1 (as 2+1=3 and 2-1=1)
4  2
6  2
...

As you can see, it is easy to write down this table.

 

[Alex_P]

Thank you very much ! I just wanted to clarify that. Thanks again, I appreciate it !