Play the Life Engine here: thelifeengine.net
This is a showcase of the new update to the life engine, which allows organisms to evolve eyes and brains. An eye cell faces a direction, looks forward a certain number of cells and observes the first cell it sees. Based on its observation, the organism can either move towards the observed cell, move away from it, or ignore and move randomly.
These relatively simple rules have resulted in some really fascinating results. Organisms can become extremely efficient predators, hunting down undefended organisms and avoiding danger themselves. In response, static organisms evolve cells that ward off predators even though these cell types may be useless. This is a form of camouflage. In other cases, organisms evolve cells that bring them closer together, resulting in cooperative swarms. Other organisms take advantage of this by evolving the same cells and using them to lure in prey.
I demonstrate some of these phenomenon in this video.
Overall, the addition of vision to the simulation has resulted in increasingly complex organisms and ecosystems, which parallels the effects of vision in the real world's evolutionary history. I talk a little bit about these similarities.
There has also been a color scheme update, which I think looks nicer. Let me know what you think.
Timestamps:
(00:00) - Intro / Color Scheme Change
(01:15) - How the eye works
(03:11) - Inspirations from the natural world
(04:08) - Initial bloom [no talking]
(06:16) - The first eyes and camouflage
(08:10) - Aggressive predation
(09:05) - Making the "Purple Flower"
(11:33) - Schools of fish
(12:27) - Final word
Music
Perceptron by Acolyte. / user-82623269
Fun References:
Demonstrating the evolution of the eye: • Richard Dawkins demons...
Trilobite Eyes: • Eyes Made of Crystal? ...
Vision and the Cambiran Explosion: • What caused the Cambri...