Seeds Automaton Screensaver
Seeds is a cellular automaton with the rule B2/S — every single live cell dies the very next generation with no exceptions, but any dead cell with exactly 2 live neighbors is born. That harsh die-every-tick rule still produces endless blooming, explosive filament growth rather than extinction.
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How the Seeds Automaton screensaver works
The rule is deliberately brutal: every live cell dies next generation, unconditionally — there is no survival condition at all.
The only way cells persist is through birth: a dead cell becomes alive if it has exactly 2 live neighbors right now.
Because death is total but birth is easy to trigger, small seeds explode outward into branching, exploratory filaments rather than fading out.
The pattern never reaches a stable still life — every generation is entirely freshly born cells, chasing outward from wherever the last generation touched.
A worked example
Drop in a small cluster and watch it detonate outward in a matter of generations, throwing off branching arms in every direction — nothing from the previous generation survives, yet the pattern keeps spreading rather than vanishing.
Settings & tips
- Cell color recolours every freshly born cell.
- Generations / sec controls how fast the bloom spreads.
- The board reseeds with a fresh seed once growth reaches the edges.
Frequently asked questions
- How can it keep growing if every cell dies each turn?
- Because the birth rule (exactly 2 neighbors) fires often enough near recently-active cells that new cells keep being born faster than the pattern can vanish.
- Does it ever go still?
- Rarely — the rule structurally favors explosive spread over stability, unlike Conway's Life.
- Is a key needed?
- No — it's a pure local computation.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.