Jordan writes: “My tattoo is of the ‘glider’ formation from John Conway’s Game of Life. As a History of Science student I love this geometric arrangement and its promise of self-contained (not viral) reproduction, and travel.”Carl: For more on Conway’s primordial artificial life, see here.
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"Celebrated curiosity monger"
Carl Zimmer writes about science regularly for the New York Times and magazines such as Discover, where he is a contributing editor and columnist.
He is the author of twelve books, the most recent of which is Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed. His website is carlzimmer.com and his address is blog at carlzimmer dot com .
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August 24th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
No tattoo on this blog has made me laugh out loud except this one. I love it! It reminds me of all the hours i spent playing the Life simulation as a teen. That little ’7′ is my favorite of all the objects that could be created because they would zip around indefinitely until they hit something.
January 8th, 2010 at 11:26 am
That is actually the hacker emblem for exactly the same reason. Gives you a good excuse to learn to program!
http://images.google.com/images?q=hacker+emblem
January 21st, 2010 at 6:40 am
I’ll second that notion of getting my biggest chuckly thrill at seeing my old friend the glider. So much meaning in so few pixels.
May 31st, 2010 at 1:03 am
Oh my! I’ve never known anyone else had this! The last few years, I’ve been putting together a tattoo idea I hope to be able to afford within the next few months. The glider is going to be prominently displayed : )
June 2nd, 2011 at 9:59 pm
This is one of my favorites of this whole album- along with the Cajal neuron diagrams and the Schroedinger cat.
I don’t think it’s funny, though- I think it’s badass! I have a glider t-shirt and every person who has recognized it I have instantly recognized as cool