CHRIS HAY / THE NOTEBOOK / CELL80
A world that can
be questioned.
Three questions asked of a small evolutionary world: what changed its history, what keeps it alive, and whether one advance can make another possible.
Personal experiments around established artificial-life questions. Follow the recorded interventions, read the limits, and see what remains open.
- 01CELL80
REPLAY THE WORLD
Can you name the mutation that changed a world?
One birth changes two inherited fields. Undo only the reproduction-program change, then examine the recorded outcome.
WORKING DRAFT · SUPPORTED
OPEN THE NOTE ↗CELL80 / 013337One birth.
INTERVENTION DIAGRAM
Two histories. - 02CELL80
KEEP IT ALIVE
What keeps an evolving world alive?
Program variation sustains predators and grazers in the tested conditions. Survival and a detected arms race remain separate claims.
WORKING DRAFT · PARTIALLY SUPPORTED
OPEN THE NOTE ↗CELL80 / 02Still alive.
SURVIVAL ≠ COEVOLUTION
Still a question. - 03CELL80
ASK WHAT IT CAN BUILD
When does improvement become invention?
Useful changes, distinct behaviours and two sequential improvements. The held-out dependence gate remains unpassed.
WORKING DRAFT · OPEN
OPEN THE NOTE ↗CELL80 / 03What makes
THE RATCHET / OPEN
the next step possible?
BUILDING THINGS TO FIND OUT HOW THEY WORK
Artificial life has explored digital organisms, coevolution and cumulative adaptation for decades. These notes follow my own experiments within that tradition, from an inspectable birth to a result I cannot yet claim.