Why can Conway’s Game of Life be classified as a universal machine?

Question

I was recently reading about artificial life and came across the statement, \"Conway’s Game of Life demonstrates enough complexity to be classified as a universal machine.\"

Answer 1

And Paul Chapman actually build a universal turing machine with game of life: http://www.igblan.free-online.co.uk/igblan/ca/ by building a "Universal Minsky Register Machine".

The pattern is constructed on a lattice of 30x30 squares. Lightweight Spaceships (LWSSs) are used to communicate between components, which have P60 logic (except for Registers - see below). A LWSS takes 60 generations to cross a lattice square. Every 60 generations, therefore, any inter-component LWSS (pulse) is in the same position relative to the square it's in, allowing for rotation

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