  The classical "game of life" (GOL) due to Conway is a famous mathematical
game constructed as a two-dimensional cellular automaton in which each cell is
either alive or dead. A set of evolutionary rules determines whether a cell
dies, survives or is born at each generation based on its local environment.
The game of life is interesting because complexity emerges from simple rules
and mimics real life in that a cell flourishes only if the environment is "just
right" producing a breadth of life-like behavior including multi-cellular
lifeforms. Results are presented from a quantum adaptation of the GOL which
assigns a qubit to each cell which then evolves according to modified
evolutionary rules. Computer simulation reveals remarkable evolutionary
complexity that is distinct from the classical GOL and which mimics aspects of
quantum biological processes and holds promise for the realistic simulation of
species population dynamics. Liveness emerges as a probability density with
universal statistical properties dependent solely on the evolutionary rules.
New species of quantum lifeform are found. One quantum lifeform is shown to act
as a seed to produce children, one or more classical and/or quantum lifeforms,
classical oscillators, a liveness probability density or death with outcomes
highly sensitive to the initial state. We observe the emergence of chaos and
scaling phenomena making the quantum game of life an exciting prospect for
further exploration as a model for life-like behaviors.
