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GENEPOOL SWIMBOTS Copyright (c) 2022 by Jeffrey Ventrella

swimbots.com ventrella.com

1. SHORT DESCRIPTION

Here's the first part of the blurb in the in-app info page:

Witness the effects of Darwinian evolution as hundreds of simulated organisms compete for mates and food. Explore this virtual aquarium of proto-swimming robots ('swimbots'), and see how mate preference can affect the course of evolution.

Watch the emergence of a dominant race of swimmers in about 30 minutes. Keep it running for longer and swimming skills will improve, where swimming 'skill' is determined entirely by natural selection. Every time you start a new pool, the outcome will be different.

Learn more about GenePool here: https://www.ventrella.com/Alife/GenePool.pdf https://vimeo.com/562230608 https://www.r-bloggers.com/2021/08/intro-to-evolutionary-algorithms-with-r-for-beginners-from-scratch-part-1/ swimbots.com

2. USAGE/LICENSE

This software is intended for education, game design, and research. You may use, distribute, and modify this code under the terms of the MIT (with the "Commons Clause") License. See the LICENSE file for details).

One reason I created this web version of GenePool was to make it easier for game developers, researchers, and biology educators with coding ability to create interesting, entertaining, and insightful variations. A basic API to the simulation allows developers to construct educational scenarios, game levels, and much more - depending on skills and resources. Please contact me if you have ideas or if you have questions or suggestions about the code.

3. SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE

When I ported GenePool to the web, I made a point to separate the browser-specific aspects from the core functionality. The simulation code is pure bare-bones Javascript. Even though there are always new improvements, language specs, and new layers of functionality added to the Javascript ecosystem, I prefer to keep the simulation code very simple. In terms of the properties specific to a particular software language, the code may not appear like typical web-tech Javascript, and it may bear a resemblance to object-oriented languages.

Since the whole simulation is now open (and not just the UI and UX that is tethered to the browser side of things), it is available for enhancement, but I would warn against poking at it too much before you have gotten familar with it. Again, please contact me if you have questions, suggestions, and ideas for improvement.

(This README file needs more detail)

-Jeffrey Ventrella [email protected] ventrella.com