I’d been working on a simple walker algorithm, first seen in Daniel Shiffman’s The Nature of Code.
As illustrated in the diagram above, at any given point in time, you have 8 possible choices. Either to move on the vertical axis (2), horizontal axis (2) and diagonally (4), given you 8 choices as well as the 9th option of staying in place.
The same can be done with a pixel on the screen. By programming a function that computes a random number between 0-8, you can give the computer power to choose the direction every frame count. I programmed 8 of these independent walkers that moved across the screen, sometimes for as long as 50 minutes to generate some of the outputs below.
A lot of people found it quite cool! Interestingly, my junior Kriti, mentioned that we I discussed the idea with her, she thought the movement would be quite geometric but this turned out to be organic. Interesting how people believe that the computer can’t generate organic things.
In some ways, this is the computer exercising free will. Also, interestingly enough, the walkers always connected at a certain point. Maybe this is why civilisations were inevitable, given the finite space on the Earth.