
Particle Life - davidfoster
https://fnky.github.io/particle-life/
======
rouli
wonderful!

Coincidently, I read today a paper [1], which has a nice video demo here [2]
describing a very similar system but with only one type of cells and a simple
rule. Surprisingly enough, particles form cell type structure and seem to
"reproduce".

[1]
[http://www.nature.com/articles/srep37969](http://www.nature.com/articles/srep37969)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=makaJpLvbow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=makaJpLvbow)

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crimsonalucard
How does this explain entropy? How is it increasing in this system?

Are the complex/organized/cell-like structures supposed to be a higher entropy
configuration?

 _edit:_

I played with the parameters with "chaos" as the template. There's a parameter
called "friction." I believe anything with a non-zero value here will cause
energy to dissipate away from the system.

If you set that friction value to zero, the system is closed and entropy goes
up and stays up. In this state no complex structures form. However when you
let energy dissipate out of the system via friction you start to see the
cells, which is in line to the theory on how life can form despite rising
entropy.

~~~
heavenlyblue
>> How does this explain entropy?

Does it have to explain entropy?

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crimsonalucard
No it doesn't. I'm just questioning it.

Initially it seemed to me as if the system was closed and thus entropy would
go up. However entropy was not actually going up while observing the
simulation which violated my notions of the nature of entropy and life.

It formed a contradiction in my mind and that was what I was questioning.

However the "friction" value made everything make sense. The system is not
closed.

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rtkwe
Link to the github repo: [https://github.com/fnky/particle-
life](https://github.com/fnky/particle-life)

Couldn't find that in the actual page anywhere.

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svnpenn
Full screen seems to be glitchy - particles dont go all the way to the bottom

~~~
bayindirh
Looks like it gets the window size at the beginning and locks the canvas size
to keep universe size constant, not to affect the simulation.

Kinda clever if you ask me.

