Watch things evolve from where they stand, or click in either box to sow seeds of change; enter numbers in boxes and press return to change parameters.

The model is a floating-point cellular automata pair, an experiment in neurological modelling, and an automatic generator of beautiful imagery.

Here is roughly how it works:
'Predators', or 'action', on the right, feed on 'prey', or 'attention', on the left.
The prey feeds on the resources available,
and up to a point it reproduces faster the more of it there is;
beyond that point it runs low on resources and slows down.
Both sides diffuse; the 'prey' also have a faster mode of transport, by dendrites connecting distant cells,
rather like the synapses connecting brain cells.

In the C++ version the predators and prey are drawn in the same space; predators are red, prey are green. Click in the view to rotate; the parameters have sliding arrow controls as well as numbers.

C++ Win32 executable

(requires glut32.dll and glu32.dll to be in Windows/System directory)

Fergus's main page

Fergus's Algorithmic Art:

Tiles generated by this program

Other Interactive Applets

Animations

Stills