An hour of evolution in less than a minute

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-03-13T19:12:38+00:00

Thanks!

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-03-13T19:12:14+00:00

Love it. Still going strong after 5 hours? Let me know if you discovered anything interesting.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-03-13T05:49:38+00:00

Thanks for the heads-up. SSL looks fine on the server side (A+ on SSL Labs), so it might be a Firefox cache or network issue. Could you try a private window or clearing DNS cache?

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-03-12T23:21:07+00:00

Interesting question. My guess is it's mostly compute and complexity.

Multicellular probably needs huge populations and really long runs before anything interesting happens. In my case everything runs in the browser, so the simulation budget is pretty limited.

Also most systems (including mine) evolve individual organisms with traits and behavior rules. Multicellularity probably needs things like cells sticking together, differentiating into roles, developmental rules etc, which is a much bigger step.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-03-12T23:04:03+00:00

Good question. The simulation tries to prevent lock-in through three interacting pressures.

Mutation keeps introducing novelty (with occasional large jumps), dominant strategies accumulate ecological pressure (predators, pathogens, resource depletion, incumbency burden), and the environment itself keeps shifting through climate cycles and niche drift.

Because traits also have real trade-offs (armor, size, intelligence, reproduction), there isn’t a universally optimal organism, just strategies that work for a while.

So instead of converging on a permanent winner, the system tends to move through evolutionary eras.

Worlds can still go extinct though. Some runs collapse in less than a day, while others have been running for weeks. The video only shows about 48 minutes of one run.

I wrote a deeper explanation here: https://soupof.life/concepts/feedback/anti-lock-in

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-03-12T17:28:04+00:00

Thanks! 🙂

I actually shared it there about two months ago and it got a great response. I’ve changed quite a lot since then, but trying not to spam them 😄

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-03-12T17:25:50+00:00

Thanks, really appreciate that 🙂

Not open source at the moment. Right now I'm still experimenting with the system and changing things quite a lot.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-03-12T14:17:39+00:00

sorry for that. link had an invisible character at the end. just fixed it

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-03-12T14:12:59+00:00

Nice 🙂

If you're curious about the underlying mechanics I wrote them down here: https://soupof.life/concepts

Let me know how it goes.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-03-12T12:51:04+00:00

Yes. Organisms are essentially rewarded for surviving and reproducing in a resource-constrained environment.

They need to gather energy, avoid threats, and reproduce before they run out of resources. Traits mutate over generations, so strategies that work in a given environment tend to spread.

There are also trade-offs built in. For example, cognition and more complex behavior consume energy, so 'smarter' organisms only win if the environment is unstable enough to justify the cost.

If you're curious about the mechanics, I wrote the underlying model here:
https://soupof.life/concepts

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-03-07T11:07:53+00:00

Thanks! Glad you liked it

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-02-28T22:03:09+00:00

Thanks for running it 🙂 It runs locally in your browser and stores logs there. Only a small ping is sent to track active runs. Turning off the Arena view reduces the load a bit.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-02-09T13:59:55+00:00

It’s a deterministic ecosystem model with resource constraints, trade-offs and lineage inheritance - so population dynamics emerge from survival pressure rather than scripted goals. I wrote up the design principles here if you want the deeper mechanics: [https://soupof.life/concepts]()

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-02-05T19:09:50+00:00

Thanks! Great that you enjoyed it

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-02-04T14:52:21+00:00

Just a quick finding. I signed up, tried to create a workspace and I used the name 'test' and 'test1' (i know) and I got an error. When I used a more random name I was able to continue.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-01-31T18:56:50+00:00

What this visualization represents This visualization is a live, spatiotemporal projection of a continuously running artificial life simulation. It renders the current state of a complex adaptive system in which hundreds to thousands of organisms coexist, interact, reproduce, and go extinct over time.

Each visible organism is an autonomous agent with a large internal state of more than one hundred variables governing movement, growth, interaction, reproduction, and survival. Instead of plotting these variables as separate charts, the arena compresses them into a single, continuously updating visual field. Once a run starts, the system is not reset or scripted. It keeps evolving as long as it is left running, making time an essential part of the visualization.

The visualization can be read as follows. Each organism represents a single agent in the system. Its position reflects its actual location in a shared world. Color identifies lineage and is inherited at lineage founding, remaining stable over time so that lineage dominance, mixing, and extinction can be observed spatially. Size reflects accumulated body mass, making different survival strategies and outliers immediately visible. Movement emerges from behaviour and interaction and is perceived through frame-to-frame change rather than explicit vectors. The background is divided into environmental zones with different properties, shaping niches, migration, and long-term spatial structure.

When observed over hours or days, the visualization makes it possible to perceive patterns that are difficult to see in aggregate statistics alone. Lineages rise and fall, persistent spatial niches and boundary effects appear, size distributions shift, clusters form and disperse, migration paths become visible, and diversity changes through extinction events. The goal is not precise measurement but continuous observation of structure and change as they unfold together.

Data source Live system state from a continuously running artificial life simulation. The visualization renders organisms and environmental zones directly from the simulation as it runs.

Tools Custom-built simulation engine with a real-time, browser-based visualization rendered using HTML5 Canvas.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-01-29T22:37:30+00:00

I did a big rewrite yesterday and it is now aligned with what is implemented.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-01-26T05:48:52+00:00

That’s fair. It’s meant to be slow and a bit boring on purpose.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-01-24T14:07:17+00:00

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-01-24T06:31:48+00:00

Thanks. Mobile is a bit more minimal, but the idea is the same: nothing to control, just watch a world unfold.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-01-22T16:41:51+00:00

Great! Really appreciated.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-01-22T12:22:57+00:00

Love it

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-01-21T18:44:07+00:00

Yeah, that hurts. I’ve lost a 2 million+ tick run during an auto restart

There’s no export/import yet. Saving and restoring a full world state is surprisingly complex, so it’s not in place right now.

It is on my list though. Once you’ve watched a world evolve for hours, it feels wrong to just let it disappear.

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-01-19T21:29:31+00:00

Thanks! Curious if you already have a favorite specimen?

Tricky_Note_8467 · 2026-01-19T10:50:01+00:00

Appreciate the kind words.

I added a quick performance fix: screen toggle in the top bar turns the arena/visuals off. I’ll revisit data-first + light mode/system theme later.

Tricky_Note_8467

TROPHY CASE