The idea of creating an ecosystem through code has started to interest me. I have only just begun my exploration into it, but it is interesting how it changes your perspecting on the world around you. Once you train your brain to think the way that code wants you too (very rigid, highly organized, no room for error), you start to categories things in the real world the same way.

For instance; when I was creating this small test which I called EEP (Evolving Ecosytem Project), I had to think about what properties each character needed in order to have a realistic ecosystem. Off the top of my head they each would at least have:

1. A life span.
2. A need for food.
3. A means of attaining the food source (locomotion, photosynthesis, etc).
4. Social interaction (mating, community, reactions based on proximity to others).

As I was doing some tests based on this I would start to look at objects in the real world and think about what they need and how you would code that. Let’s take a tree for example. It has a life span, needs energy, growth rate, and seeds for reproduction. In theory you can break down just about every living creature into these small fundamentals that would just be the change of a couple numbers in the code. I live 75 years + or – random*10. A cat might be 12 + Math.random()*5.

Of course other variables can effect these numbers, but it comes down to simple calculations.

For some reason even doing this small exploration really made an impact on how I see things. Sometimes it becomes a little philosophical for me. Like, if we can program this in a computer, then were we really programmed. Or on the other side of that coin, if every living thing is so similar in the properties that make it up, doesn’t that lend more toward supporting evolution from a single source.

Anyway, I guess that is all I had on that subject for now. I hope to have more on this once I get back into the project.