SPELLULAR AUTOMATA

TodePond is such an inspired and inspirational genius! Screens in Screens is exactly the one I was going to recommend too, that will recursively suck you into watching all the rest. Screens in Screens (ScreenPond) source code: link TodePond's videos: link Including the latest stuff on Patreon: link ...Where I heard about her recent talk about CellPond at ACM SIGPLAN in Lisbon: link It's a modern ground-up reimagination of visual computing, as foundational as Scott Kim's 1988 PhD dissertation, "Viewpoint", but deeper: link >Demo and explanation of Viewpoint, a computer system that imagines how computers might be different had they been designed by visual thinkers instead of mathematicians. Caution: this is basic research, not a proposal for a practical piece of software. Part of my PhD Dissertation at Stanford University in 1988. Toward a computer for Visual Thinkers: link Todepond talked about how she was introduced to visual programming as a child by Stagecast Creator (aka KidSim aka Cocoa): link >Stagecast Creator is a visual programming language intended for use in teaching programming to children. It is based on the programming by demonstration concept, where rules are created by giving examples of what actions should take place in a given situation. It can be used to construct simulations, animations and games, which run under Java on any suitable platform.[1] >History >The software known as Creator originally started as a project by Allen Cypher and David Canfield Smith in Apple's Advanced Technology Group (ATG) known as KidSim. It was intended to allow kids to construct their own simulations, reducing the programming task to something that anyone could handle. Programming in Creator uses graphical rewrite rules augmented with non-graphical tests and actions. >In 1994, Kurt Schmucker became the project manager, and under him, the project was renamed Cocoa, and expanded to include a Netscape plug-in. It was also repositioned as "Internet Authoring for Kids", as the Internet was becoming increasingly accessible. The project was officially announced on May 13, 1996. [...] link >That's something that Alexander Repenning's "AgentSheets" supported (among other stuff): you could define cellular automata rules by before-and-after examples, wildcards and variables, and attach additional conditions and actions with a visual programming language. >AgentSheets and other cool systems are described in this classic paper: “A Taxonomy of Simulation Software: A work in progress” from Learning Technology Review by Kurt Schmucker at Apple. It covered many of my favorite systems. link >Chaim Gingold wrote a comprehensive "Gadget Background Survey" at HARC, which includes AgentSheets, Alan Kay's favorites: Rockey’s Boots and Robot Odyssey, and Chaim's amazing SimCity Reverse Diagrams and lots of great stuff I’d never seen before: link)%20Gadget%20(1)%20Survey.pdf >Chaim Gingold has analyzed the SimCity (classic) code and visually documented how it works, in his beautiful "SimCity Reverse Diagrams": [...] link >Another great visual programming language for kids that supported defining cellular automata rules by example and visual programming: >KidSim (later Cocoa, then Stagecast Creator) Smith, David C., Allen Cypher, and James Spohrer (1994) In KidSim graphical simulations are created via graphical rewrite rules, which also enables a kind of programming by demonstration. The creators argue that most people can use editor GUIs (e.

Some other very visual programming environments/languages that I have found. They are different from other visual programming where you connect nodes with lines. These can be categorised differently but I don't what that will be. Piet link Turnstyle link link Markovjunior link Cellpond link link ▶ this video Imagegram link Color Code link link Color Code 2 link link Splaty Code link link (By Muril Polese link link) Alchemy Online link link

Also check out Sandspiel Studio, which lets you explore, edit, and define your own rules with a Scratch-like block visual programming language! link Making Sandspiel (maxbittker.com): link link link DonHopkins 3 months ago | parent | context | favorite | on: Making Sandspiel I am a huge fan of Sandspiel, which Max described in this article from 2019, and recently I was delighted to discover that he and TodePond have been doing a huge amount of wonderful work since then. What happens when you combine Sandspiel with a Scratch-like blocks based visual programming language that lets you look inside and see how rules work, tweak and modify them, and even define your own rules for different types of particles? And then form a community around it for sharing and learning from each other and building on top of each other's work. Here is Max's and TodePond's brilliantly ambitious visually programmable sequel, Sandspiel Studio! link Here's my profile, where you can play with the version of Max's flower growing rule that he shows here: link ...to grow underground potatoes and fancy flowers: link I've written more about Sandspeil Studio and related topics of artificial life, cellular automata, and visual programming, and quoted some interesting discussion with Max and TodePond from their Discord server (they actually already knew about most of this stuff, but they love it as much as I do), in the "Ask HN: What weird technical scene are you fond/part of?" discussion, in reply to api's comment about Digital Artificial Life: link api 67 days ago | parent | context | favorite | on: Ask HN: What weird technical scene are you fond/pa... Digital Artificial Life -- as in evolving program ecosystems, artificial chemistries or cellular automata that can manifest life-like phenomena, etc. Haven't done much with it in a while but was very into it in college. It's both a minor scientific field (would probably be grouped under both theoretical biology and AI research) and a hobbyist field with some really interesting projects. DonHopkins 67 days ago | prev [–] That's one of my long time interests and hobbies, which I write about on HN and discuss with other people frequently. I'm supposed to be doing something else right now so I'll quickly drop a few disorganized quotes and links here. (Sorry I didn't have time to be more concise!) A few years ago I ran across Max Bittker's beautiful "Sandspiel", which is a delightful cellular automata toy that simulates sand and other rules: link A few days ago I saw him tweet some amazing stuff that resonated with me, which then led me to discover what he's been working with Lu Wilson (TodePond): Sandspiel Studio -- user definable rules using a block based visual programming language. link "working on goth fungus kidpix": link Lu Wilson (TodePond): link Sandspiel Studio: link Sandspiel introduction: link Sandspiel Studio in 60 seconds: link Rainbow Sand: link Huegene: link Flower: link TodePond's Spellular Automata: ▶ this video We had a great discussion on the Sandspiel Studio Discord server, where I posted some interesting links: [lots more links and info in the original post:] link Also be sure to check out TodePond’s amazing videos and software! For example,

I am a huge fan of Sandspiel, which Max described in this article from 2019, and recently I was delighted to discover that he and TodePond have been doing a huge amount of wonderful work since then. What happens when you combine Sandspiel with a Scratch-like blocks based visual programming language that lets you look inside and see how rules work, tweak and modify them, and even define your own rules for different types of particles? And then form a community around it for sharing and learning from each other and building on top of each other's work. Here is Max's and TodePond's brilliantly ambitious visually programmable sequel, Sandspiel Studio! link Here's my profile, where you can play with the version of Max's flower growing rule that he shows here: link ...to grow underground potatoes and fancy flowers: link I've written more about Sandspeil Studio and related topics of artificial life, cellular automata, and visual programming, and quoted some interesting discussion with Max and TodePond from their Discord server (they actually already knew about most of this stuff, but they love it as much as I do), in the "Ask HN: What weird technical scene are you fond/part of?" discussion, in reply to api's comment about Digital Artificial Life: link api 67 days ago | parent | context | favorite | on: Ask HN: What weird technical scene are you fond/pa... Digital Artificial Life -- as in evolving program ecosystems, artificial chemistries or cellular automata that can manifest life-like phenomena, etc. Haven't done much with it in a while but was very into it in college. It's both a minor scientific field (would probably be grouped under both theoretical biology and AI research) and a hobbyist field with some really interesting projects. DonHopkins 67 days ago | prev [–] That's one of my long time interests and hobbies, which I write about on HN and discuss with other people frequently. I'm supposed to be doing something else right now so I'll quickly drop a few disorganized quotes and links here. (Sorry I didn't have time to be more concise!) A few years ago I ran across Max Bittker's beautiful "Sandspiel", which is a delightful cellular automata toy that simulates sand and other rules: link A few days ago I saw him tweet some amazing stuff that resonated with me, which then led me to discover what he's been working with Lu Wilson (TodePond): Sandspiel Studio -- user definable rules using a block based visual programming language. link "working on goth fungus kidpix": link Lu Wilson (TodePond): link Sandspiel Studio: link Sandspiel introduction: link Sandspiel Studio in 60 seconds: link Rainbow Sand: link Huegene: link Flower: link TodePond's Spellular Automata: ▶ this video We had a great discussion on the Sandspiel Studio Discord server, where I posted some interesting links: Check out the Long Now Foundation talk by Brian Eno and Will Wright about Generative Systems: 10:39 minute excerpt of Will talking about cellular automata and demonstrating with Mirak's Cellebration: link 6:48 minute excerpt of Will demonstrating Spore Metaverses: link 6:29 minute excerpt of Will demonstrating Spore Creature Demo: link Entire 1:38:50 hour Long Now Foundation talk: Playing with Time | Brian Eno and Will Wright link Craig R

That's one of my long time interests and hobbies, which I write about on HN and discuss with other people frequently. I'm supposed to be doing something else right now so I'll quickly drop a few disorganized quotes and links here. (Sorry I didn't have time to be more concise!) A few years ago I ran across Max Bittker's beautiful "Sandspiel", which is a delightful cellular automata toy that simulates sand and other rules: link A few days ago I saw him tweet some amazing stuff that resonated with me, which then led me to discover what he's been working with Lu Wilson (TodePond): Sandspiel Studio -- user definable rules using a block based visual programming language. link "working on goth fungus kidpix": link Lu Wilson (TodePond): link Sandspiel Studio: link Sandspiel introduction: link Sandspiel Studio in 60 seconds: link Rainbow Sand: link Huegene: link Flower: link TodePond's Spellular Automata: ▶ this video We had a great discussion on the Sandspiel Studio Discord server, where I posted some interesting links: Check out the Long Now Foundation talk by Brian Eno and Will Wright about Generative Systems: 10:39 minute excerpt of Will talking about cellular automata and demonstrating with Mirak's Cellebration: link 6:48 minute excerpt of Will demonstrating Spore Metaverses: link 6:29 minute excerpt of Will demonstrating Spore Creature Demo: link Entire 1:38:50 hour Long Now Foundation talk: Playing with Time | Brian Eno and Will Wright link Craig Reynolds said the name "Boids" was inspired by The Producers Concierge scene, so that's how you should pronounce it: Boids. Dirty, disgusting, filthy, lice ridden Boids. Boids. You get my drift? link The other really cool rabbit hole to explore for generating tiles and even arbitrary graph based content (I'm sold: hexagons are the bestagons!) is "Wave Function Collapse", which doesn't actually have anything to do with quantum mechanics (it just sounds cool), but is actually a kind of constraint solver related to sudoku solvers. link Maxim Gumin's work: link Paul Merrell's work: link link Oskar Stålberg's work: link link There's a way to define cellular automata rules by giving examples of the before and after patterns, and WFC is kind of like a statistical constraint solving version of that. So it's really easy for artists to define rules just by drawing! Not even requiring any visual programming, but you can layer visual programming on top of it. That's something that Alexander Repenning's "AgentSheets" supported (among other stuff): you could define cellular automata rules by before-and-after examples, wildcards and variables, and attach additional conditions and actions with a visual programming language. AgentSheets and other cool systems are described in this classic paper: “A Taxonomy of Simulation Software: A work in progress” from Learning Technology Review by Kurt Schmucker at Apple. It covered many of my favorite systems. link Chaim Gingold wrote a comprehensive "Gadget Background Survey" at HARC, which includes AgentSheets, Alan Kay's

It sounded to me like a cellular automata programming language, like Dave Ackley's "SPLAT" for the Moveable Feast Machine, or Lu Wilson's Sandpond visual CA programming language: Moveable Feast Machine: link Programming Soft ALife with SPLAT and Ulam: link SPLAT repo: link Cells in Cells in Cells: link Spellular Automata: ▶ this video NEW Cellular Automata: link SandPond: link Live SandPond: link TODEPOND TIMES: Nogan: link