Today I had this idea for a visualisation and since work wasn’t too urgent I decided to run with it.
Though the idea is pretty simple, I still think the result is quite fun to watch.
To start, the stage is filled with 20 “parasites” of random colour and direction. The rules they understand are as follows:
- Continue forward until you discover another parasite of a different colour and of equal or lesser size
- Once a suitable target parasite is found, follow it. If you manage to get close enough, take a bite out of it
- When eating others, grow in size. If size gets too big, dissolve into two child parasites of the same colour
- If someone is eating you, shrink in size. If size gets too small, die
- The bigger you are, the faster you can move
Eventually you’ll see that one colour/species will win and dominate the stage. At this time click anywhere on the stage to reset and start again.
I think it’s interesting that in order for one species to conquer the screen, it must first become more vulnerable (i.e. when the large parasites split into two smaller ones). At a stretch, one could suggest that this mimics nature.
It’s a bit CPU intensive (the gradient doesn’t help things but I couldn’t resist!)… sorry if your machine struggles. If you’ve bothered to read this you should click the experiment now to reset it. Enjoy.
