
Remembering Conway - ColinWright
https://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/RememberingConway.html?td13hn
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falcrist
Conway gave Brady Haran a very interesting interview a few years ago in which
he contemplated his own mortality somewhat.

[https://youtu.be/xOCe5HUObD4](https://youtu.be/xOCe5HUObD4)

It really puts some of these mathematical problems into perspective when you
think about how they can span multiple human lives.

~~~
brownbat
VSauce tweeted a playlist of Conway's appearances on Numberphile, including
that one:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kUJL04ELA&list=PLt5AfwLFPx...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kUJL04ELA&list=PLt5AfwLFPxWIL8XA1npoNAHseS-j1y-7V)

I found the one you posted especially moving, but the others were good too.

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zaphar
I never met Conway myself. But I first encountered his Game of Life in a
science fiction book I no longer remember the title of. The book didn't make
much of an impression but the game did. I played it out on paper during long
car trips and when we got our first computer the first code I ever wrote that
wasn't "hello world" was an implementation of Conways Game of Life in gw-
basic.

In a way his game helped start me on the path to the career I have now.

~~~
at_a_remove
Might have been _OX_ by Piers Anthony, that was my first introduction.

~~~
Crespyl
For me was _Calculating God_ by Robert J. Sawyer, in which an alien appears at
the Royal Ontario Museum and asks to speak with their paleontologist. Through
that book, GoL was my on-ramp to all kinds of cellular automata, a-life, and
procedural generation techniques that I still find fascinating.

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gbronner
My recollection of conway is that he was quite good at backgammon -- good
enough to make a bet to swap salaries with a lecturer over a public series of
30 (or more) games held in the common room. I believe that he won by one.

~~~
ColinWright
When I played with him we enjoyed the game, so it's not clear he was playing
to win. Actually, it _was_ clear ... he was _not_ playing to win, he was
playing to have an interesting game.

I'm sure he could have played seriously and thrashed me, had he chosen.

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GoMonad
Years ago, I was sitting next to John Conway and another older Professor in a
small computer lab in Fine Hall (Princeton's math building) while waiting to
meet my advisor. What I remember most about listening in on their conversation
was how much fun it seemed they were having. Especially Conway. It was like he
was engrossed in a really fun game and was trying to come up with new ways of
thinking about the rules. I think you can see that in his work too.

The pure joy he took in his work is something I admired.

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Aperocky
Stood up a page on my website for this, got my parents running the game a
couple times, and they commented: looks like how coronavirus spread.. Such is
life.

[http://aperocky.com/conway](http://aperocky.com/conway)

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rjsw
I had not realized where you live, I read a few other blog entries linked from
this one.

The one time that I met him would probably have been at a Liverpool
Mathematical Society event when I was at school.

~~~
ColinWright
I was President of the Liverpool Mathematical Society for a year, and maintain
a connection. I only knew Conway when I was at Cambridge, 1983 to 1987, and at
the time didn't know of his connection with Liverpool.

~~~
rjsw
I think this would have been in 1982. I was at school, he was visiting his
parents and did a talk at Liverpool University.

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ColinWright
Noted. I didn't come to the UK until September 1983, so this was before my
time.

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fixf
I have GOL running on my keyboard. You will be missed but not forgotten.

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brudgers
Condolences on your loss.

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pacman128
xkcd has a tribute to Conway today:
[https://xkcd.com/2293/](https://xkcd.com/2293/)

~~~
chris_va
funny choice

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kUJL04ELA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8kUJL04ELA)

