all activities of living organisms can be partitioned into exploring or exploiting niches, as explored in the QT
particularly interesting is the structure of the exploit phase, where life acts as a space-filling curve with variable fractal dimension
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RT @pee_zombie
so many problems we face boil down to timing explore/exploit decisions; too late, and you've optimized-for-optionality your way into scarcity. too early, and you've pick…
https://twitter.com/pee_zombie/status/1441837490927595523
this is esp. apparent when the exploited resource is in 2D space; the patterns of outward fractal expansion, density varying w/ resource desirability
the topology of the emergent network can be predicted from a combination of terrain, resource distribution, starting position
a space-filling curve (SFC) is a mathematical object defining a specific way of visiting ~every point in a space; typically fractals w/ a tunable variable called the fractal dimension (FD, or roughness/granularity) which determines the resolution w/ which the space is traversed
there are many different kinds of SFCs, but typically speaking they have a constant FD throughout, which is often inadequate for modeling real-world systems, which are variably self-similar
to this end we need a type of SFC w/ variable FD, or granularity
practicality aside, SFCs are fun toys to play with, simple algorithms to drop in anywhere you need a way to define a total ordering on an otherwise-unordered space
they're also quite pretty & a great doodling technique; I've filled many a notebook like so
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RT @pee_zombie
while originally botanical in nature, these L-systems can be repurposed for general generative purposes, as the rules are quite flexible
this one here is a simple …
https://twitter.com/pee_zombie/status/1425876243002675200
this sort of VG-SFC is capable of representing the logic by which a living organism focuses its exploitation on resource-rich subsets of the niche, the FD pegged to the resource density
interesting applications of this tool could be for urban planning or procedural generation