Conway's Game of Life is a cellular automaton created by mathematician John Conway in 1970. It consists of a grid of cells that can be either alive or dead. The state of each cell changes based on simple rules that consider the states of neighboring cells, leading to complex patterns over time. The game operates in discrete time steps, where each cell's fate is determined by its eight surrounding cells. If a live cell has two or three live neighbors, it survives; if a dead cell has exactly three live neighbors, it becomes alive. This simple framework can produce intricate behaviors and patterns.