Life and Cellular Automata Theory References
(The references presented herein are some which I have consulted in the past; the list is not a complete bibliograpahy to the game of Life).
Abt, Clark C. Serious Games: The Art and Science of Games that Simulate Life. The Viking Press, 1970.
Arbib, M. A. "A Simple Self-Reproducing Universal Automaton," Information and Control , 1966.
Berlekamp, Elwyn et. al. "What is Life?" Winning Ways. Academic Press, 1982.
Buckingham, David J. "Some Facts of Life." Byte. December 1978.
Burks, A. W. Essays on Cellular Automata. Univ. of Ill. Press, 1970.
Codd, E. F. Cellular Automata. Academic Press, Inc., 1968.
Gardner, Martin. "On cellular automata, self-reproduction, the Garden of Eden and
the game 'Life.'" Scientific American, February 1971.
Gardner, Martin. "The Fantastic Combinations of John Conway's New Solitaire Game
'Life.'" Scientific American, October 1970.
Gardner, Martin. "The Game of Life." Wheels, Life and other Mathematical Amusements. W.H. Freeman 1983.
Golay, M. J. E. "Hexagonal parallel pattern transformations." ITEE Trans. Computers. vol. c-18, August 1969.
Hayes, Brian. "The Cellular Automaton Offers a Model of the World and a World
Unto Itself." Scientific American, March 1984.
Lee, Chester. "Synthesis of a Cellular Universal Machine using the 29-state Model of von Neumann." Automata Theory Notes. The University of Michigan Engineering Summer Conferences, 1964.
Minsky, Marvin L. Computation: Finite and Infinite Machines. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967.
Moore, E. F. "Machine Models of Self-Reproduction." Proceedings of Symposia in Applied Mathematics. vol. XIV. American Matematical Society, 1962.
Morris, Scot. "The Game of Life," Omni. October 1984.
Poundstone, William. The Recursive Universe. William Morrow & Co., 1985.
Shannon, C. E. "A Universal Turing Machine with Two Internal States" Automata Studies (C. E. Shannon and J. McCarthy, Eds.) Princeton University Press, 1956.
Smith, Alvy Ray III. "Cellular Automata Theory." Technical Report No. 2: Digital Systems Laboratory, Stanford Electronics Laboratories. Stanford University, 1969.
Thatcher, J. W. "Universality in the von Neumann Cellular Model." Technical Report 03105-30-T, ORA. The University of Michigan, 1964.
Turing, A. M. "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." Mind, vol. 59, 1950.
Ulam, S. M. "A Collection of Mathematical Problems." Interscience. New York, 1969.
von Neumann, J. The Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata. (edited by A. W. Burks), University of Illinois Press, 1966.
Wainwright, Robert T., ed. LIFELINE: "A quarterly newsletter for enthusiasts of John Conway's Game of Life." March 1971 - September 1973.
Winograd, T. A. I. "A Simple Algorithm for Self-Replication." A. I. Memo 197, Project MAC. MIT, 1970.
Also check out the bibliography of books and articles on the Game of Life found at Paul Callahan's site.