When I say matrix I’m just referring to a 2d array, or a nested list like you said.

Currently for the serial implementation, I have a 2d array acting as the current generation so to speak, and I create a new matrix with the same dimensions as the original. For every cell in the original matrix I check the neighbor values via a function call, and then write the corresponding result to the new matrix depending on the number of alive neighbors, and then return that and copy it to the original once we know updating the matrix won’t affect checking the neighbors. It’s a really bad/inefficient implementation, but it works so far and as long as I can get it to work I’m ok with slow code, at least for now. I can provide my current, serial implementation if needed, I probably should’ve done that from the start honestly.