Biots

Welcome to Biots! Biots is an ALife Java applet by A. Joseph Rheaume.

Run 500x450 Biots
Run 1005x585 Biots
Download Biots for your computer (all operating systems)
Here is some general information on biots.
Here is an in-depth explanation on how the biots think.
Here is the biots spritesheet.

Biots seems to have on-again off-again compatibility issues with various OSs and browsers. Currently it should work on any MS Windows OS running IE, Netscape or Mozilla, and on Mac OS 9 running Nescape or Mozilla. It only recently began working on IE on windows versions later than 98, around the same time I noticed it won't load at all in Mac OS X.

Biots is designed so that you can have as little or as much interactivity as you want. You can just sit back and watch the biots go from stupid to smarter over several generations, or you can modify their world using the options menu. You can move the biots around by picking them up with your mouse. Use the menu to add or remove biots, and play with the environmental settings. Each biot contains a memome which is a tiny program that is passed on to children, and occasionally mutates. The applet starts out with five individuals of each species, each with a randomly generated memome. Most will start out spinning in place or sleeping. Hopefully natural selection will eventually generate offspring that act more intelligently.

A couple of notes: I recommend using Mozilla to view this (and any other) webpage. Though you'll need to install the java plug-in from Netscape.com. If you want to restart the environment hold SHIFT and hit the reload bu tton, or close and reopen the window. Kill your browser's process and restart it if the applet gets slow. More information on this project can be found at http://www.scarybug.org/demiurge.html. Download the source code here. You will also need my Dice Class source to compile it. Unless you want to rewrite that part on your own.

Be sure to also check out Biots-3D!

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

You can contact the author by email at scarybug@gmail.com