The Lemon Fool

RIP John Conway. Another coronavirus victim, and a huge formative influence on my youth.

I have quite a few memories of him from my Cambridge days, where he was one of the woefully few lecturers who was not just a great mathematician but also a great communicator, who could bring his material to life and always make it fun.

I remember whiling away a few hours, coding and playing the Game of Life which he invented

sunnyjoe wrote:I remember whiling away a few hours, coding and playing the Game of Life which he invented

At university I wrote a version for the BBC Micro. A fellow student there who also ran a small software house took it on. Sold 1 copy. Never did get paid. Still, if I had, it probably wouldn't have crossed my mind to pay Mr Conway a Royalty although he was credited on the splash screen.

There are, ironically, parallels with the rules of Life and the current adverts / memes showing how Social Distancing helps the coronavirus die out.

A full month later (yesterday), the BBC get around to featuring him on their obituary programme Last Word. Along with two pop stars and a shrink.

I guess someone more important than me must've expressed disappointment that they failed to feature him at the time.