Author: yr2263

Reading Response on Computational Beauty of Nature

 

I honestly used to think that biology and computer science were totally different worlds but reading the first chapter of The Computational Beauty of Nature really changed my perspective. The reading explains that usually science tries to understand things by breaking them down into tiny pieces like atoms or cells but that does not always tell you how the whole system works. It is super interesting to see that nature is actually a lot like the code we write because it uses simple rules and parallel processing to build complex things like ant colonies or even the human brain.

What really stuck with me is how this idea challenges the way I’ve been trained to think about problems. In computer science, I am used to focusing on algorithms, logic, and efficiency, while in biology I always assumed things were more descriptive and observational. This reading made me realize that both fields are actually asking the same question which is how do simple interactions give rise to complex behavior? Seeing natural systems as computational systems made biology feel much more relatable and even exciting to me, especially because it connects directly to ideas like emergence and self-organization that we also see in simulations and programs.

It changes how i look at the world when i realize that everything from a snowflake to the stock market is just processing information. It makes me wonder if we can actually simulate everything if we just find those basic rules. I wonder will we ever be able to write a program that perfectly copies nature or is there something random in the universe that we can never predict?

Personally, this question keeps bothering me the more I think about it. Part of me feels optimistic, like maybe with enough data, computing power, and better models, we could simulate almost anything. At the same time, I also feel that there might always be some level of unpredictability, whether it comes from randomness, chaos, or limits in our understanding. That uncertainty is what makes this topic so fascinating to me. Instead of seeing nature as something separate from computation, I now see it as the ultimate computational system something that we are still only beginning to understand.

Code Production

Concept

I wanted to make something that feels alive but simple. A leaf sits in the middle and a small caterpillar wanders on it. As it moves it eats away the leaf and the eaten parts turn white. The leaf slowly changes shades of green based on where the caterpillar is and how it moves. New leaves pop up nearby when you click so the scene keeps growing. I imagined the caterpillar as both a painter and a tiny critic of the leaf, leaving a trail that tells the story of its path. The motion mixes a random walker for direction with a gaussian walk for color so the visual change feels organic and a little surprising.

Why this feels right to me

I like the idea of a creature that only moves on a surface and changes that very surface while it moves. It gives a simple rule set but the result looks like a small life form making a mark. The interaction is gentle. A click resets and gives a new canvas so you can explore again. It feels playful and quiet at the same time.

Code highlight I am proud of

The most complex part of this sketch for me was designing the caterpillar movement so that it feels random but still intentional. I did not want it to just jitter around the screen. I wanted it to look like it is exploring the leaf but also aware of its boundaries.

To do this I created a random walker with dynamic probabilities. The caterpillar has two different states depending on where it is on the leaf. When it is close to the edge it is much more likely to turn back toward the center and only rarely continue forward. When it is in a safe area it mostly moves straight but sometimes turns left or right. This balance took time to get right because small changes in probability made the motion feel either too mechanical or too chaotic.

What makes this challenging is that the movement still remains random but it is guided by invisible rules. The caterpillar never explicitly checks for the leaf shape yet it almost always stays on it which makes the motion feel natural rather than scripted.

This logic is what gives the sketch its personality.

// Pick a new random target for the caterpillar to move towards
pickNewTarget() {
  let distanceFromCenter = dist(this.headPos.x, this.headPos.y, width/2, height/2);
  let stepSize = 15;
  let newAngle;

  let randomVal = random(1.0); 

  // If near edge, turn back towards center
  if (distanceFromCenter > 140) {
    let angleToCenter = atan2(height/2 - this.headPos.y, width/2 - this.headPos.x);
    
    if (randomVal < 0.95) {
      // Usually go towards center
      newAngle = angleToCenter + random(-0.5, 0.5); 
    } else {
      // Sometimes keep going
      newAngle = this.currentAngle; 
    }
    
  } else {
    // Normal foraging behavoir in safe zone
    if (randomVal < 0.70) {
      // Go straight most of the time
      newAngle = this.currentAngle + random(-0.3, 0.3);
    } else if (randomVal < 0.85) {
      // Turn left sometimes
      newAngle = this.currentAngle - random(0.5, 1.5);
    } else {
      // Turn right sometimes
      newAngle = this.currentAngle + random(0.5, 1.5);
    }
  }

  this.currentAngle = newAngle;

  // Calculate new target position
  let xStep = cos(newAngle) * stepSize;
  let yStep = sin(newAngle) * stepSize;
  this.target = createVector(this.headPos.x + xStep, this.headPos.y + yStep);
}

Embedded sketch

Reflection and ideas for future work

1. Add more life like feel by giving the caterpillar inertia and a sense of rest when it eats too much. Maybe make it slow down after a long run.

2. Try a self avoiding walk so the caterpillar learns to avoid recently visited areas and patterns will become more complex. This could make the eaten shapes more deliberate.

3. Make the leaf grow back slowly so the scene becomes a cycle of eat and heal. That would make the sketch feel like a small ecosystem.

4. Link sound to movement so each bite triggers a soft tone and the pitch depends on the distance from the center. Then the piece becomes both visual and sonic.

5. Let multiple caterpillars share the leaf and give them simple rules for interaction. Sometimes they could follow each other and sometimes they could compete for space.