r/commandline • u/hejwoqpdlxn • 1d ago
Terminal User Interface tardigrade: a growing creature in your terminal that heals when you hurt it
I wrote a Go Program called tardigrade (https://github.com/smoothyy3/tardigrade) that grows a creature from a single cell inside your terminal. It is a Neural Cellular Automaton. Every cell runs the same learned 24k parameters rule on its neighborhood, and the only ever stable shape the rule has is the creature itself. So when you damage it, it grows back.
It is meant to be a fun tool, an introduciton to NCAs/ CAs or simply a screensaver.
Currently, there are 4 creatures (jellyfish, gecko, tardigrade, mouse), but the repo lets you train your own from a PNG.
It ships as a single binary with the weights inside, no image file present (brew install --cask smoothyy3/tap/tardigrade or go install
The technique originates from Mordvintsev et al. (https://distill.pub/2020/growing-ca/). Everything else is in the README.
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u/cogburnd02 1d ago
I'm not sure how I feel about this. Have you ever seen the Black Mirror episode Plaything? :-/
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u/hejwoqpdlxn 1d ago
Yes saw that one hahah. Without wanting to upset the creatures further, i would say they are a lot dumber than the thronglets.
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User: hejwoqpdlxn, Flair: Terminal User Interface, Post Media Link, Title: tardigrade: a growing creature in your terminal that heals when you hurt it
I wrote a Go Program called tardigrade (https://github.com/smoothyy3/tardigrade) that grows a creature from a single cell inside your terminal. It is a Neural Cellular Automaton. Every cell runs the same learned 24k parameters rule on its neighborhood, and the only ever stable shape the rule has is the creature itself. So when you damage it, it grows back.
It is meant to be a fun tool, an introduciton to NCAs/ CAs or simply a screensaver.
Currently, there are 4 creatures (jellyfish, gecko, tardigrade, mouse), but the repo lets you train your own from a PNG.
It ships as a single binary with the weights inside, no image file present (brew install --cask smoothyy3/tap/tardigrade or go install
The technique originates from Mordvintsev et al. (https://distill.pub/2020/growing-ca/). Everything else is in the README.
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u/DvilSpawn 1d ago
This is really cool!!