New World Notes

A two decade veteran of the UK music and game industry, Laukosargas recently left work for family reasons, mostly.  "The main reason I stopped is because I had a child," as she puts it, "but I was also getting very disapointed with the lack of inspired work in the games industy."  As it happens, she worked for a time on Black & White, the classic "god game" from legendary British designer Peter Molyneux. 

"It was an experience that gave me a real insight into how great games can be," she says.  "It was a truly brilliant idea but it lacked play testing, I think." She's referring to the constant micromanagement required by the player, acting as a tribe's god, to provide a steady stream of resources to survive on.  "It required TOO much attention."  She nods to her island.  "It's a balance I'm still working on here."

So while she raises a child at home, she takes creative respites to nuture a self-sustaining ecology in Second Life*, adjusting variables here and there, working for the moment when she can stand back like Newton's clockmaking God and let her world unfold on its own.  And, well, have her Sunday of rest.

Even this early into its creation, she's noticed some limited forms of emergence (the holy grail of artificial life developers) particularly in the development of her plant life.

"It's very sensitive to very small changes," she says, "like if a gene emerges which gives a plant an extra seed in its lifetime, that can cause huge growth in its locale.  And the opposite of course, one less causes thinning growth.  I've also seen the same color become a dominant gene so all the meadow cup plants became blue once.  Simple things like that emerge quite often."

All this sounds like an invaluable experiment in artificial life or testing theories on evolutionary development, so I ask if she's interested in finding out anything from Svarga.

"Yeah," she answers, "Is it fun? I'm totally uninterested in all the hypothetical bollox that gets spouted by academics."

"I love it-- for fun, you play god.  Everyone needs a hobby."

"I am god," she agrees, laughing.

* Svarga design notes by Laukosargas Svarog:

Nearly all of the plant-life in this area of the sim is part of a beta test for a fully functional artificial ecology system for Second Life. Everything is actually growing and replicating by itself!

The system comprises...

Clouds
Scripted clouds roam the sim and occasionally rain onto the ground below. The plant-life underneath soaks up water from the cloud, the amount is determined by angle and distance.

Wandering lonely on a cloud.  "They blow around the sim using the SL wind," says Laukosargas.  "They cover the whole sim several times a day."

Sun
The SL sun provides energy for growth, it's measured by it's position and the amount of SL cloud density.

Bees
Little tiny scripted bees fly between fertile flowers distributing "pollen" which contains "genes" describing the plant it belongs too. If a plant receives pollen from another of the same species it produces a seed or a sprout which becomes another independent plant.

Birds
Birds fly around. Mostly pestering visitors for food in the form of seed that you can buy at the seed vendors. But occasionally the birds get hungry and will come down to eat flower seeds or seedlings they find on the ground.  This helps keep the system growth in check. Very occasionally you might catch a bird chasing a bee too !

Trees
Trees are grow from seeds to mature. When they mature they become fertile and occasionally flower. Flowers are pollinated by bees and then seed. Tree seeds blow in the wind and if they land on fertile ground will slowly grow into another tree.

Flowers
The various types of flowers grow from seed and are pollinated by the bees. Each flower species requires a different kind of habitat. Eg some only grow under trees or in "shady" places. Others only grow out in the open. Others require wet areas.

Markers
Invisible markers designate habitat areas such as "shady", "boggy", "wet" etc. Some plants can only grow in a certain place and they use these markers to find the places.

Bats and Globugs
Although currently they have little to do with the eco system, at night bats come out and chase the globugs to provide a little entertainment.

Me, Lauk, the head gardener
This system is so complex it can grow and take over just like mother nature in real life!  It requires a some tending, pruning and sometimes a little watering too.

* * *

Update, 6/1:  Check the Comments for updates and clarifications on Svarga from the goddess Herself.  Speaking of which, I forgot in my initial post to include a screenshot of Her image and likeness.  So, behold: