Does make me wonder if it's possible to make a physical / analog / mechanical version of Game of Life.

fake edit: yes, kind of: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/forums/topic/164622-moc-mec...

sure is - i made one using poker chips and a chessboard - i had to do the computations using my own brain though :-(

https://latedev.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/a-poker-chip-comput...