Autocatalytic Text Ecosystem

[AUTO] Autocatalytic Text Ecosystem

Language as chemistry: words drift as molecules, collide, and fuse into larger phrases. Each fusion kills off its parts; phrase-sized molecules are extremely "sticky," so the bath quickly collapses into a single mega-phrase and a finished poem.

Population Seed Text Size

Arena

Temp:1.00 Reactions:0 Dominant:--

DET

ADJ

NOUN

VERB

ADV

PREP

PRON

CONJ

NP

VP

CLAUSE

Chemical Poetry

Tip: press Space to start/pause, S to step, M to pulse mutation. Bonds between compatible phrases are now almost inevitable once they get near; the bath is driven hard toward a single mega-phrase.

About: Autocatalytic Text Ecosystem

Concept. Each word is a "molecule" with reactive sites (grammatical affinities). When two molecules collide in the arena, they may bond according to an affinity table (e.g., ADJ + NOUN -> NP, DET + NOUN -> NP, NP + VERB -> CLAUSE).

Here, a successful bond is fusing and culling: both reactants vanish from the bath and a single fused phrase survives as a new molecule. No new agents are released. Phrase-level molecules (NP/VP/CLAUSE) are extremely "sticky": once there are only a few left, reactions are effectively guaranteed, so the population quickly collapses into one mega-phrase while the poem on the right records the fossil trail.

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Emergence. Common bonds accumulate into stable "species" (metaphors, idioms, tiny clauses). Rare mutations can invent new reaction rules (novel syntax), subtly changing the path by which the bath runs down.

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Controls.

• Start/Pause/Step run the simulation. Pulse Mutation temporarily increases rare-reaction probability.
• Reseed uses the chosen numerical Seed for reproducible runs. Population sets initial word count.
• Text Size scales all arena labels. Copy Poem copies the visible poem; Copy Log copies the full hidden reaction log.

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Design: no circles, large readable labels with halo; one-screen layout with internal scroll for the poem. Pure JS/Canvas, no libraries.