Monocell #245

As the first iteration of protocells, monocells are primitive, digital, artificial life forms based on lattice structures. Guided by artificial selection, they evolved rigid, springy, naked skeletons with no membranes or differentiation in material and resemble organic Radiolarians living in Earth’s oceans. Monocells tend to cycle through different configurations in their evolutionary path, some stable, some in perpetual motion. Undiscovered earlier versions of protocells probably had no way of interacting with the graphics pipeline and, if at all, existed as simple graph data structures. Monocells were the first protocells which evolved monochrome display through ordered dithering.

Monocells have 7 features which approximately describe their configuration and behavior. Starting from a basic primitive shape, a monocell develops in several stages through application of growth rules. Higher stages give a more complex structure, with stage 3 being the highest observed for a monocell. Very rarely, stage zero appears as well, which is the primitive itself with no growth rules applied. Magnitude defines the size of the monocell by indicating the number of digits for the total number of nodes. While most monocells are symmetric, some evolve irregular configuration, which is indicated by their order. Finally, connection and degeneration features describe additional rules for adding and removing links between the nodes.

Press o_o for recording an animation clip (available only in fullscreen / live mode). Press >< for recentering. Coded in Javascript and GLSL using Three.js and D3 frameworks.