This program demonstrates a generalization of continuous cellular automata called, where a number of naturalistic life forms reside in the virtual world.

How to use

tab - shows various real-time statistics, find period, etc.

Many more functions --- try it yourself!

Background

Cellular automata (CA) is a simple set of mathematical rules that could produce a myriad of complex patterns. In the most popular CA Game of Life (GoL), interesting patterns range from the tiny glider, a gun that shoots gliders, to extreme constructions capable of simulating a digital clock (video), a computer (video), and even the CA itself (video).

The discrete nature of GoL has been taken to continuous limits in other CAs. Larger than Life (LtL) took a larger radius of neighborhood, RealLife took the radius to infinity and approached continuous space (theoretically), and SmoothLife explored continuity and smoothness in cell values, space and time. They produce more life-like patterns, like the "bug with stomach" that moves in any direction.

Lenia

Here in Lenia, the neighborhood and updating rules are generalized into "kernel" and "delta" functions. Like in SmoothLife, every cell has continuous value from 0.00 to 1.00, continuous space-time can be approached by increasing space resolution R and time resolution T. Length, time and mass are measured in units μm, μs and μg, respectively.

Life forms

After intensive search and experimentations, several dozens of stable life forms (or "solitons") were discovered. They were then given "scientific names" and being categorized similar to biological taxonomy and organic chemistry. The "bug with stomach" in LtL/RealLife/SmoothLife turns out to be Scutium solidus within the order Scutiformes, and the eyeball-like bug (video) is very similar to Orbium unicaudatus within the order Orbiformes. Other known orders include the wings-bearing Pterifera, the single-ring Anuliformes, and the double-spiral Heliciformes. Sizes range from single-sac Orbium or Gyropteron to multi-sac Nonahelicium or Tetracosapteryx.

Feel free to discover your own new species! If you found one, please share with us at albert.chak@gmail.com (You can copy the cells by / + and paste the Unicode text in the email).

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