Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

---

Visit brilliant.org/alphaphoenix to start your free 30-day trial, and get 20% off a premium annual subscription!

Welcome back, and I hope you enjoy this mess of a three-year project… It turns out backing up in a cellular automaton can be an insanely difficult problem. This started as a "play button" project, but turned into an obsession. I recently came to the conclusion that there's no long-term winning this game (it has been shown to be NP hard, so I don't feel that bad) but AGH it should be easier than it is!
Join me in this video as I dive through the much fabled Game of Life, take a hike through a very strange space, and organize a dinner party. It's going to be a great time.

Check out the second channel with bonus content and Q&A videos!
youtube.com/@BetaPhoenixChannel

Special thanks to my top Patreon supporters!
birdiesnbritts
John Sosa Trustham
Vladimir Shklovsky
Aloysius Sparglepartz
Jason Whatley
Lohann Paterno Coutinho Ferreira
Jeffrey Mckishen
nothings
Eugene Pakhomov
Glenn Willen
R520
Nick F
Mirko Rener
Chris Connett
Tyler Filla
Miles Freeman
Benjamin Manns
MPG
Seth Reuter
Danny Thomas
Toby T
Lucy Fur
tiaz
Chris Duvarney
Nick Wage
John T
big bonus points to Patreon supporter david.antos for very patiently teaching me about complexity classes!
patreon.com/AlphaPhoenix

Media Credits:
I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626

E's Jammy Jams - The Entertainer
YouTube Music License

Silent Partner - Pink Lemonade
YouTube Music License

Chapters:
0:00 Conway's Game of Life
3:04 Playing GoL in reverse is hard
6:56 How to think in more dimensions
15:55 Drawing maps (both real and configurational)
19:33 The failure of gradient ascent
23:16 SAT solvers (dark CS magic)
28:54 Rephrasing the question and getting results
34:22 Brilliant.org