Show HN: What if code had a lifespan? A morphogenetic computing experiment https://ift.tt/7yOBTrN

Show HN: What if code had a lifespan? A morphogenetic computing experiment Hi HN! I've been exploring what happens when we treat code not as architecture but as a living ecosystem. Demo: https://ift.tt/XmI8feJ This started from a simple question: The slime mold Physarum can solve mazes without a brain. What if our code could similarly self-organize? The result is Plasma - computational cells that: - Metabolize energy from their environment - Reproduce with mutations - Form emergent colonies nobody designed - Die (and that's a feature) No ML, no complex algorithms. Just simple rules creating complex behaviors. The entire thing is 800 lines of vanilla JS/Canvas. I'm particularly interested in your thoughts on: 1. What patterns do you see emerging after ~1000 cycles? 2. Could this approach scale to real applications? 3. What would you add to the "genetic code"? The philosophical manifesto is in the repo if you're into that sort of thing. But the code speaks for itself. https://ift.tt/XmI8feJ June 7, 2025 at 05:25AM