It's made a lot of Lifenthusiasts happy, and that's not nothing I suppose.

It has also taught a lot of people a little something about the likelihood of emergence of complex behavior from very simple iterated rules.

And maybe you could say that several of the larger collaborative Life projects that have happened recently have been very good examples of non-political international co-operation, in a world that these days seems like it could use a few reminders that such things are still possible.