Simulating Particle Life

Particle Life is a fascinating simulation model that showcases emergent behavior arising from simple rules. Inspired by Jeffrey Ventrella's "Clusters" ( ventrella.com/Clusters ). This simulation resembles real-life organisms, demonstrating that emergent behavior doesn’t require complex processes.

[@Lacheln-YO]

This shows that you don't need overly complex things to make something beautiful (and amusing to my single celled brain)

[@practicemodebutton7559]

i like this comment, it gets a dollar sign emoji 💲

fr

[@Lacheln-YO]

@@practicemodebutton7559 💲

[@ianmoore5502]

Fr twice in one comment section

[@WhyIsJupiterInTheFridge]

@@practicemodebutton7559also a satellite emoji 🛰

[@DankePrime]

I love life simulations so much, dude. There were actual food chains, and a few of the simulations literally had multi-celled stuff. This kind of stuff is awesome.

[@informalchipmunk5775]

At some point, one of these structures will randomly be extremely stable and self replicating. (Maybe something with its outer wall which allows it to gather more of its kind). That would make the chaos go extinct....

[@BenziLZK]

at most of the videos I can see some 'cells' as I would like to call it, eat other particles or cells and it become too big to it splits into 2 cells... Kinda like how cells division work but without the chromosomes bullshits lol

[@U20E0]

The problem with this is that it is _too_ easy for multiple of the same structure to form from nothing, meaning that there is very little material left for any of them to make clones out of without first cannibalising something ( since they all use unique particles )

[@_marshP]

Unfortunately he didn't add any sort of particle creation system that the particles can access.

[@laiton2]

Yeah i feel like i could see that in a more complex environment the material in the outer layer of the “cell” could be attracted to the center layer with a middle layer seperating it, so that if the availability of the materials is right it could form a stable loop of getting big then collapsing in on itself in such a way that it replicates

[@paulkanja]

I think the complex "cells" emerging from this soup of particles and "evolving" to survive in the randomness and chaos is quite cool.

[@mr.dragon.purple9209]

Can you pls make a site where you can play with these things, and if you do, put it in the description and reply to this comment, telling you created it? I WANT TO PLAY WITH THESE THINGS SO BAD

[@BoredYoshi]

from the looks of it, it would take a lot of computing power to run, so it's not likely many people would get as much use from it as he did

[@h1lw]

​@@BoredYoshi it runs on the GPU so not really

[@BoredYoshi]

@@h1lw true

[@Monst3erCube]

I AGREE BRO

[@magshdz]

He can make a smaller version

[@atismoke]

really makes you think about sentience like, at what point do you go from mass to life? to brains? to concience?

fr

[@darkgobelin4439]

I personnaly think that what makes us sentient is just the size of our brain, like at one point we became smarter that other animals and we gained concience and emotions to better understand, but we need to understand because we have concience.. idk if it's clear I tried my best to explain my thoughts...

[@vindi167]

@@darkgobelin4439 we know that, @junhongwu1882 is asking at which point consciousness starts

[@PEIIIKA]

​@@darkgobelin4439The size of our brain doesn't really affect our intelligence. Popular misunderstatement. Though, i don't really know about what makes us far more intelligent than any other animal. I might guess that it's the amount of neurons in our brain.

[@ImSkippingClass2Play]

@@PEIIIKA It's approximately the ratio of the brain-mass compared to body-mass that makes things intelligent

[@deathcheese]

Saw the title and the thumbnail and the channel and I knew I was gonna see something good

[@Blankoo3d]

If only more content creators knew these basic secrets to luring in more viewers.

[@funnifunnifunni]

1:58 first eukaryotic cell 3:44 cell walls form 4:08 complex life (and separate species) 5:26 many species (and racism) 5:34 mitosis 6:07 genuses start forming (similar species) 8:51 defense mechanisms arise (the blue "prey" cells start deflecting the red "predator" cells) 10:37 multicellular life emerges 11:14 cell nuclei form 12:52 filter feeders emerge 14:16 dna-like structure emerge edit: how did this get over 15 likes in under a day

[@proatplanes]

Thank you

[@gamingtv4041]

Dam bro

[@Thioacetone1]

bro made an edit for 15 likes

[@_charademon_]

That filter feeders are something else entirely)

[@c0dejjshizpostarchive624]

Although this is fun and all, I would like to remind everyone that everything in this comment is an egregious misrepresentation of these concepts. I don't believe that OP intended to pass this off as "real", but for those gullible enough, this is absolutely positively incorrect.

[@MrBrineplays_]

Now I wanna see this with the atomic scale now. Protons, neutrons, electrons, or the quarks making them up, then watch them as they show the different properties of gravity, electromagnetic properties, charges, changes in state of matter (solid to liquid, liquid to gas, gas to liquid, liquid to solid, etc.), radioactivity, tranparecy, conductivity, malleability, and more. Imagine how big of a simulation you need just for those things that are surprisingly 99% empty

[@elementgermanium]

To be fair, you’d need to know how quantum gravity works, and no one knows how quantum gravity works lol

[@TurnipTheBee]

@@elementgermaniumhere's the great thing about simulations though! You don't, you just need to know it's effects! This simulation you watched was simplified as hell, and CELLS formed!

[@4984christian]

They can simulate a human organ I think on the molecular level. One of my prof told that in a lecture 10 years ago. But they had research computation clusters. I bet its even more achievable today.

[@4984christian]

The question is: will life emerge by doing such a simulation.

[@TurnipTheBee]

@@4984christian It depends on what you mean by "life"- In a simulation like this, I've personally seen simple "creatures" that eventually get so unstable they split into 3+, but more complex ones have a hard time It would be AMAZING to one day see spontaneous generation with our OWN EYES, computer or not!

[@Q-werty30]

10:47 I love these guys. They look like they have umbrellas

[@malechex611]

_Umbrellium qwertii_

[@Q-werty30]

@@malechex611 :D

[@The-random-idiots]

I made my reply before seeing urs

[@demon_xd_]

Many of these structures appear pretty stable, I think if this simulation had a way of making new particles out of existing ones, self-replication could be achieved

[@ayathados6629]

The simulation works a lot like a closed system, or a cave underground. What this needs for it to be more realistic is to have new elements constantly appearing (kinda like energy from the sun hitting the earth)

[@funnifunnifunni]

self replication was achieved, it just involved murder at one point the orange yellow and blue cells were wplit by the red and cyan cells creating two new cells, mitosis being acheived partially

[@creature-zf8rs]

​@@funnifunnifunni mitosis kinda happens through and requires stimuli as seen in the simulation because without it they won't split

[@c0dejjshizpostarchive624]

@@creature-zf8rs It's less of mitosis, and more of forced cytokinesis, the cell is violently ripped in half by some external structure and particles are somewhat evenly dispersed between the daughters.

[@Gabriel-se6tj]

As conway's game of life you can never really seem to be able to estimate how many generations this simulation will have or if it will be stable, if a cell will grow indefinetly, etc. Super duper cool particle chaos.

[@bencressman6110]

These kinds of simulations always spark so many ideas! What if you introduced gravity, each particle being attracted to a point at the centre inversely proportional to distance. What if you introduced energy, which affected the max speed of the particles? What if you grouped the particles in the beginning rather than randomly dispersed them? What if what if what if. This was beautiful. Thanks for putting it together

[@GerinoMorn]

What I think can be a gamechanger is mixing colours and their "electronegativity"

[@robbiealderton1361]

One of the coolest videos I have ever seen highlighting emergent properties

[@dutch_and_dimes]

I can't imagine a better way of simulating and explaining real-world biology than this. The first part literally teaches you about genetic traits in a way that is so undeniably simple that even a 3rd grader could learn it

[@leniterfortis4832]

Some of those looked completely alive. Very interesting.

[@ikosaheadrom]

I wount say they are alive you are seing the equivalent of wind it moves it pushes stuff but its not alive

[@leniterfortis4832]

@@ikosaheadrom *LOOKED* completely alive

[@ikosaheadrom]

@@leniterfortis4832 for they didnt look alive more of just particals moving about, the main thing that makes things alive is the ability to reproduce and metabolism i didnt see any of that in the simulation, i just saw multiple mobile black hole

[@leniterfortis4832]

@@ikosaheadrom You might be taking yourself too seriously.

[@creature-zf8rs]

​@@ikosaheadrom man has never seen a microorganism

[@VictorTirreau]

Appreciate your attention to details! The foley sound effects add depth and professionalism to the video, loved it overall!

[@fadingstarmc3867]

love the animations and the background music in this one! another amazing upload

fr

[@toaster_2815]

This is amazing! I'd like to see it with way more colors, even if you can't tell the colors apart you might see a lot of different species emerge

[@Otakutaru]

youtube's compression algorithm hates this man

[@EchoPrograms]

I made my own web implementation of particle life. I had to put the link in a community post on my channel as yt automatically deletes comments with links apparently. It's pretty fun to mess around with, but it isn't gpu accelerated so you can't have a massive amount of particles, the number varies on how good your cpu is.

[@jalapenoandbanana]

Thank you for making this video, this is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while

[@AppleForTwo]

I can watch this all day, it’s so cool to see the cell-like formations and what they do :)

[@AndreuszVII]

This actually might be the way that life started. The visualisation is great and you need to be more popular for what you are doing❤

fr

[@gregoryturk1275]

Ya

[@ak47ali50]

Alah who Het universum maken

[@pidx]

@@ak47ali50 Nope

[@ak47ali50]

@@pidx YOU MEAN THAT ALAH DIDN'T DO IT!!!!!

[@surashey3216]

When you think about it life is just particles of different types that like each other or hate. It's so simple, but so fascinating.

[@andrewparker318]

Amazing! It would be interesting to see if you could make a similar simulation that was able to show the cells reproducing and evolving

[@nevernether3368]

Imagine introducing rules for life and death. It'd be really interesting to see

[@Aaa-hl6oj]

Actually, they are already there. A cell is alive while it's whole and moving, and dies when it's eaten by another or collapses

[@nevernether3368]

@@Aaa-hl6oj that's true but I meant the particles rather then cells

[@Givized13]

I need this as my phone and PC wallpaper, simulated in real time. So fun to watch!

[@Lakaka99]

I could watch this simulation running for hours, specially with this nice soft music

[@syntaxerorr]

Really nice visualization, great music too.

[@melonenlord2723]

I tried to programm it myself and it looks so unbelievable cool with the right tweaking with the variables. Thanks for the vid with the explainations :)

[@Fireheart318]

I love the way the ones at 10:40 trail things behind them. So sci-fi like!

[@Skeffles]

Amazing! I love seeing all the different 'creatures' that appear.

[@YLLPal]

You could possibly make a kind of molecular behaviour by giving them properties which come into effect when they are "bonded" to another particle. A bond would be defined as a certain level of force interaction between 2 particles for at least x seconds (1N over 0.5 seconds bonds them until it stops or drops to 0). Say when you have a structure made of reds and blues, it changes some attraction properties, or even adds some interaction properties with other pairings.

[@creativedrag0n1]

Isnt it awesome that we are actually looking at a demonstration of us in some other universe? In reality, we are also like this simulation, but at a much greater number of particle, much greater variety, and very specific values of attraction and repulsion. I just cant imagine how would this much large number of particle be interacting in this 3d space.

[@robkol2599]

This channel is so underrated

[@Alexander-jh4ek]

This is going into my favorites playlist

[@baptisteprevost6835]

Great video, simply explained yet complex and beautiful. You could have add the force matrix you used for the different simulations.

[@steve12622]

This Simulation is beatiful, not gonna lie, yet a real cell is so much more complex then this, that its hard to comprehend.

[@ryan___ryan2711]

I've absolutely thought about a particle simulator as a videogame. Looks like an awesome start

[@Merlin0216]

With hundreds of different particle types and millions of particles and given the „correct“ matrix for their interactions with each other, with enough time and just by chance - some structure could form, that can collect other particles and can thus replicate itself - which would make it a cell. And with that, real simulated life could „evolve“ over time just in this simple simulation. That’s how life emerged in our reality, probably.

[@phoomsgamingvid8943]

This video is underrated. It deserves more views

[@JustVarun1350]

GREAT VIDEO!

[@Coolestboy1]

Bot

[@beautifulmystic2799]

Bro this is so cool there were so many cool looking ones

[@spoopy1322]

This is so awesome and interesting!

[@user-qv4zw8ue2f]

Its really cool how simple things can emulate life.

[@jameshoeft6755]

we need a part two that’s just a huge extremely long simulation

[@QBitDevs]

Super cool! Btw what’s the background music?

[@eetswamykeetssa8477]

Please I need to soundtracks to this, this is amazing

[@flammea_]

Fun observation: Almost all particle clusters or "organisms" end up moving from left to right in every simulation

[@bananapalito]

Imagine a bullet hell game that you need to avoid those particles It would be so cool

[@borggeddown]

ah sweet running from a perpetually exploding shrapnel bomb that ricochets all over the place

[@ISAAC_69000]

Intense Touhou gameplay💀💀💀

[@Roperdo7]

Im early! And I love the video! P.S. one hour ago i saw you had 59.9k subs but now its 60k

[@cubrecamarojo2924]

I need this as a screen saver

[@teacupanimates]

i was using a nice implementation of particle life, i forgot the name of the guy who made it but the nice thing about it is it has a matrix that is editable that controls the forces of attraction and repulsion between the different particles, and i saw huge cells that would have mitosis, some had snake like structures, some would cluster into big groups to make multicellular things, if you tinker a little with it you can get surprisingly life like things from it.

[@gabrielyoung4634]

I could watch particle life simulations for hours

[@arthurbernardo4543]

Please, make more videos about that and how it is comparable to life PLEASE

[@jgus6]

I need this as a screen saver or desktop background :)

[@seansimons1257]

this is bizarrely beautiful

[@MLGplayeristaken]

I wonder how the behaviour would change if there was variation in the particle size(weight) so that some particles will be less affected compared to others and some others will be more affected. I imagine like a solar system behaviour where the small ones will circle around big ones.

[@andreibaciu7518]

It would be interesting to see particles be able to change into other particles when certain conditions are met, such as 2 red particles changing into a green for instance, or after a set amount of time. Combining this with rules similar to Conway's game of life would prove insightful to seeing how homeostasis naturally emerges.

[@EmanuelMalacarne]

Really cool 👍🏼 Well done, bro

[@MunkisManimal]

If you think about it, pretty much everything in the universe is a bunch a particles following strict rules, so this is perfect.

[@sssamson1768]

Can you add polarity to the particles, like repelling from one side and attracting in another?

[@MindsOfMany]

9:04 love how the neon green and cyan cells kinda just sit there

[@visomatic6815]

It would be cool to see bonding and conservation energy

[@gregoryturk1275]

Cool video please make more videos like this

[@len518]

You could, if more than 20 particles are clumped together. Change their value so that the different colors form “covalent bonds” with other particles of that color within the clump (which would just be like some string like code so they can’t wander off) Then you get molecules and it can get a little more complicated. You could also have some structures which you know are useful like bonds which two poles be forms that can form easily. If you know it can form in real life due to reactions it should be allowed to make it form in the simulation. Life could get more complex that way

[@jakelesage4150]

You could even add individual mass to each particle type to better simulate real world particles. I'm not sure how complicated something like that would be and how much it would affect performance, but from my limited knowledge it doesn't seem like it would be immensely complicated.

[@gamingtv4041]

5:19 i love this

[@bluestone-gamingbg3498]

The creature on the bottom left literally exploded from eating too much

[@Smiley_404]

​@@bluestone-gamingbg3498it was more like "reproduction" notice the parts formed 2 other of itself, that's similar to how some real cells reproduce.

[@c0dejjshizpostarchive624]

@@Smiley_404 It seems like the "cell" itself was barely holding itself together, but due to the intense charge of the "membrane" attracting to the "nucleus" (via the bridging orange particles that attract both the "membrane" and "nucleus), it remained stable. Once the "cell" got a hold of more cyan particles (those that make up the "nucleus") the force overwhelmed that of the "membrane" and it violently exploded. From this, the "membrane" and "bridge" particles formed new, smaller "cells", which quickly picked up a "nucleus" of a few cyan particles. This system is unbelievably impressive, notice how the daughters (terminating the use of quotation marks for convenience) without a nucleus of cyan particles form far more fluid structures, as the nucleus was a necessity for a proper membrane to form. Speaking of the membrane, the membrane appears perfectly formed to allow for fission of the cell. At large sizes (when the cell would want to divide), it forms slits that easily allow cyan particles into the nucleus, until the force overpowers the membrane and the cell divides. The life cycle of this structure of particles works specifically to grow in size, until it is too large, then divide. This, however, is similar to a cell being struck by an external structure that forcefully divides it. The major difference here is how the cell itself works to allow for this. The only issue with this cell is its inability to defend itself, despite how impressive its abilities of fission are, most or all of the offspring die before maturity (in which it divides).

[@danielwindler7404]

10:49 the sail boat creatures were my fav.

[@tschichpich]

6:40 i love that the forces are symetrical but the world still evolved prefering one direction

[@BurningShipFractal]

Can we do this in 3d?

[@mitchellparadise3801]

I think it’s sorta on 3d surface lol. It’s all one surface at least. No edges

[@ethanjaycecantalejo3995]

Way more lag more combinations

[@krizcillz]

Need to see this in original quality

[@Galaxzier]

This reminds me of the hypothesis of fine-tuned universe. According to this hypothesis, the values of all physical constants are so finely matched that even the slightest deviation would lead to the impossibility of the existence not only of life, but also of fundamental structures such as quarks and atom

[@alexanderthemidI]

We can't really prove that though. Even if the universe chose a different preset, you know what they say; life finds a way, I guess.

[@Blankoo3d]

​@@alexanderthemidIIt has been proved, well sort of... No tangible research has been done on it but through equations of physics any physicist can tell that if the constants in our reality were slightly different nothing would exist... It's like knowing that if you cut off the base of a cup you can never fill it with water. Everything is just perfectly tuned... perfectly.

[@lixun7390]

​@@Blankoo3di agree with that. But I also have a question is that if all contants are increased 1% in perfect ratio, would the universe will work? (And it's the "interactions of these constants" that shape the world)

[@lixun7390]

​@@alexanderthemidI the problem with "life finds a way" into relation with the fundamental presets is that - they are constants, which mean since the beginning of this universe they have been the same, so it doesn't make sense for the universe to do try and error until they find the perfect values.

[@alexanderthemidI]

@@lixun7390 There is literally nothing saying there can't be multiple universes that may have different laws of physics, and we happened to be in the one that supports this kind of life.

[@hexagon8899]

10:45 thats so cool. such a big gap inside the organisms

[@DR-7]

Please expand on it!!!

[@Slugcat317]

i clicked cus the thumbnail looked like my obsidian vault 💀

[@sansmemesarentfunny3030]

You should add “chemistry” when when a particle gets close enough to another they can change into different particles not do anything or have only one particle change

[@thestateoforegon9117]

This is my attempt to catalog all the “lifeforms” that can evolve here. There are three main categories of life, which I will classify as Floaters, Coasters and Absorbers. Floaters are the simplest type of lifeform, being stationary creatures that just consist of one or two types of cells. These seem to be most common in simulations with low particle color counts. Species include 3:21 Flavum Botrus and 3:54 Red Centrum. Floaters do not necessarily have to be simple however, as the species Longa Forma demonstrates at 14:15. Coasters are species that revolve around being very fast, being able to speed across the map rapidly. These are surprisingly durable, being able to reform after an impact fairly easily. These can vary in speed, from being only moderately fast, like the species Neo Corpus at 4:13, or very fast, or the species family Purpura Caput at 6:35. Finally we have predators, which revolve around feeding on members of its own kind, as other prey species tend to destroy them. These can either be stationary or moving, as long as they can effectively catch prey and reform it into a part of itself. The species include Rubrum Luna at 11:02 and its ambush predator variant at 11:08 at the bottom of the simulation. My favorite species was the Navigare Navis at 10:45, a species of Coaster with a unique sail-shaped appearance. (God I spent way too long doing this lol)

[@tynado7807]

Where do all of these particles get the energy to move from?

[@thesfmdude]

5:34 those cells in the middle gonna have a talk with Pepsi in court

[@krzkrzy]

I noticed that there are many shots where cells tend to travel from left to right. I wonder if there's a bias in phisics engine that favours that direction, or it is an intended feature, a background gradient. But still, nothing that makes it less amazing.

[@bassterlo]

I like the way you say the word "particles"

[@xiaolung2314]

Super interesting! Like watching an alien version of microorganisms form

[@FlyingSpaceDino]

This would be a cool wallpaper

[@motjuste8549]

I think if you added factors for the influence of the medium (water) and the particles' varying reactions to it, it would be even more interesting.

[@Suchega_Uber]

Now to mimic life you need to give them a time frame for how long they can be in certain clusters to mimic length of life. I think you would need certain clusters to have other functions to mimic the behavior of things like antibacterial wash meeting bacteria, but that might be too complex.

[@ASoftTeddy]

This would be really good to teach about various forces on molecules/particles, I would really hope you publish it, or sell it even on something like steam for people to use to teach ewlements of physics or biology

This is incredible. I am thinking of additional rules. Perhaps if two certain unlike particles meet, they turn into different particles, or maybe just one does. Perhaps some particles lose or gain attraction forces as they touch other like particles.

[@modlich_303]

even with such simple ruleset it almost looks like life sometimes. Imagine how it would get after adding more complex rules, like bonds, or multi-layer movement (like what's already here, but the repel/attract rules change at higher distances. making things repel to a point, and further than that attract, or vice versa, btw. this is an actual quantum property)

[@McSeal]

You should try and make a simulation made of negative particles that are attracted to positive particles, positive particles that are attracted to negative, and non polar particles that are attracted to themselves. You can also make coupled nonpolar and polar particles to truly simulate a cell membrane.

[@appleseedgames6934]

Theists just can't comprehend the beauty of life and this universe, it's just so incredible

[@errorcode864g5]

I beg you to make this code publicly available, I would love to toy around with it.

[@WhyIsJupiterInTheFridge]

Same

[@NotBigSurprise]

interesting how, in some simulations, two distinct "lifeforms" of sorts emerge

[@vaclavbartonik662]

Can do you add more rules like some cells eats diferent cells

[@Osprey2511]

While I must admit that this is a very interesting concept, and that It does appear to simulate life, you forgot a crucial detail about life. You see, just because they are able to move and are also able to create complex formations, they are unable to act of their own accord. The particles in this video are only moving simply based on the laws of attraction and repulsion. For example, if I were to take a bunch of north pole and south pole magnets, while they could repel and attract each other to form complex structures, they are unable to move and act of their own accord. The same problem would occur, even if there were a dozen different types of magnetic poles. On the contrary, life is able to move independent of outside forces. While some organisms have simple jobs that only require them to do a certain number of tasks, others are able to think for themselves and choose where they want to go, regardless of the forces of attraction and repulsion. So, I ask you this one simple question. How do these particles evolve into complex organisms that are able to move independently of each other? I fail to see how these structures are able to produce a T-Rex that is able to think for itself even if they had a billion years to do it.

[@bmatt2626]

I think "external forces" is inaccurate. Your atoms are pulling on the Earth while it pulls on you. Your atoms are affecting a magnet while it's affecting you. I think there is no real internal vs external distinction, it's all the same field, and you can algebra the + / - signs to describe it from the perspective of this or that object. But that's an arbitrary choice, and exactly the same level of complexity will emerge from exactly the same level of simplicity, regardless of which side you put all the minus signs in your conceptual representation of whatever nature is actually doing.

[@Osprey2511]

@@bmatt2626 Basically what I’m trying to say is that there’s more to life than just pulling and repelling. The video only shows how particles will act based solely on pulling and repelling alone.

[@bmatt2626]

@@Osprey2511 I think the point is that even with only pulling and repelling, only 2 dimensions, only X compute, counterintuitively complex states and behaviors still arise. Of course it's not "real life", but understanding how "fake life" emerges from simple rules provides conceptual frameworks for people to investigate "real life". Playing with LEGOs isn't building skyscrapers, but if you ask 2 kids to analyze a skyscraper, the one who played with LEGOs will notice different things, ask different questions. These are _models_ of _aspects_ of a thing, and in *2D*, which of course you can't get "real life" out of anyway, because all the twisting and folding of real particle configurations allows for waaay more complexity.

[@Osprey2511]

@@bmatt2626 Because you mentioned Lego, I will put this debate to rest. Well played.

[@Autisynth]

world’s best screensaver

[@user-vl6vj2nu1s]

to simulate real life you're gonna need WAYYY more particles than these like the whole periodic table and more

[@cgstudiosthebaconbro]

Very nice video bro :)

[@user-qv4zw8ue2f]

Do the particles have velocities of their own? Or is everything in response to the others

[@GavinMakesVideos-xm7dd]

I want a part 2 with double the colors