Brian's Brain Screensaver
Brian's Brain is a three-state cellular automaton: off, firing, and dying. An off cell with exactly two firing neighbors ignites; any firing cell always becomes dying; any dying cell always turns off. Unlike Conway's Life, it almost never settles into stillness — the field keeps sparking indefinitely.
How the Brian's Brain screensaver works
Every cell holds one of three real states: off, firing (bright), or dying (dim).
A firing cell always becomes dying next tick, no matter what. A dying cell always becomes off next tick, no matter what.
An off cell ignites into firing only if exactly two of its eight neighbors are currently firing.
Because firing and dying cells always change regardless of neighbors, the automaton almost never freezes — sparks keep reigniting new firing cells nearby.
A worked example
Watch a bright firing cluster burn out to dim dying cells within two ticks, while fresh bright sparks ignite just beside it — the pattern never truly dies out, just keeps drifting and re-sparking across the grid.
Settings & tips
- Firing color recolours the bright ignited cells; dying cells are shown dimmer automatically.
- Generations / sec controls the animation speed.
- The board reseeds with fresh random sparks once activity gets too sparse.
Frequently asked questions
- Why doesn't it ever go still like Conway's Life?
- Because firing and dying cells change unconditionally every tick, the automaton structurally can't settle into a static pattern.
- Is a key needed?
- No — it's a pure local computation.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- How is this different from Conway's Game of Life?
- Life has two states and can freeze solid; Brian's Brain has three states and its firing/dying rule keeps it perpetually active.