7 ms·

Fireflies (2017)

196 points by j_b_s 7y ago

gigama 7y ago
Cool js demo, certainly worth reposting. Since he credits Steven Strogatz here's the link to Steven's 2008 TED on synchronicity and emergent behavior. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSNrKS-sCE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSNrKS-sCE0
dsalzman 7y ago
Nicky Case is amazing. His interactive game to explain segregation in cities is very eye opening as well. https://ncase.me/polygons/ https://ncase.me/polygons/
- tunesmith 7y ago
  I'd like to see a model like that adapted for vaccinations. So you can easily see the risk (for infants/elderly) dramatically increase as vaccination rates decrease a tiny bit.
  - mikk14 7y ago
    Have you tried this: http://vax.herokuapp.com/game http://vax.herokuapp.com/game ?
- lukifer 7y ago
  Case has brilliant insights into systems: "Peace is not the mere absence of war; health is not the mere absence of disease; success is not the mere absence of disaster." http://longnow.org/seminars/02017/aug/07/seeing-whole-systems/ http://longnow.org/seminars/02017/aug/07/seeing-whole-system...
severine 7y ago
Needs a (2017). Previously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14452832 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14452832
- tlb 7y ago
  Added (2017), thanks.
isoprophlex 7y ago
What happens if you fix a couple of fireflies on one end of the volume to have a slow clock speed, and a couple on the other side to have higher clock speed? (Also freezing their random motion) What do the fireflies in between do? Would the faster clockspeed win out and entrain them? Do you get chaotic behaviour? Very cool page.
TrueDuality 7y ago
Love this kind of complex behavior emerging from simple rules kind of thing.
modernerd 7y ago
I revisit Fireflies from time to time, but everything on https://ncase.me/ https://ncase.me/ is wonderful. I particularly like https://ncase.me/door/ https://ncase.me/door/. Nicky's site elevates the web beyond “magazines/newspapers/leaflets on a network-connected screen”. It reminds you that the web can be a rich and interactive medium with stories told and ideas taught with love and with care. It feels like there's a gap in the market for tools that help people to build richer experiences and “playable articles” like these. So many content management systems and platforms seem stuck in the “your website is a brochure but online” mindset. In the same way that PowerPoint seems to encourage crappy presentations, traditional tools for website creation often do the same for websites. Coupled with the sheer difficulty of creating and maintaining a website, it's no wonder that blogs and personal sites feel like they're in decline. I'd love to see more tools that let users build sites that aren't just linked pages whose most interactive feature is a contact form or search field. The only one I can think of that's close is https://glitch.com/ https://glitch.com/. Are there others I've missed?
- hamaluik 7y ago
  Agreed. See also https://www.redblobgames.com/ https://www.redblobgames.com/ that is in a similar realm (though not quite as artsy as Nicky’s)
- caffeinewriter 7y ago
  https://explorabl.es https://explorabl.es acts as sort of a repository for it. Unsurprisingly created by the irreplaceable and aforementioned Nicky Case.
- zamfi 7y ago
  There’s also things like https://editor.p5js.org https://editor.p5js.org
  - prox 7y ago
    Hey that’s amazing! I could build stuff right away. Thanks.
JoeCortopassi 7y ago
As cool as this is, and it is, this is probably the least interesting thing on the https://ncase.me https://ncase.me website. It's well worth spending an afternoon just going through some of the stuff presented there My two favorites: https://ncase.me/crowds/ https://ncase.me/crowds/ https://ncase.me/trust/ https://ncase.me/trust/
anonytrary 7y ago
This makes me really sad. Right after I went off to college, my parents moved to a new, secluded neighborhood in its infancy -- only a handful of homes there. Our house was the one right next to a tall meadow, protected by a deep forest and a pond. During those summers, you could gaze into the meadow and witness thousands of fireflies putting on a show --- every day, the 4th of July. Occasionally, you could witness huge rafters of turkeys (many dozens) slowly making their way through the fields, their true numbers hidden by low hanging fog. Then in my last couple years of college, the neighborhood matured further into development. The developers slowly turned the woods into meadows, the meadows into dirt fields, the dirt fields into streets, foundations, and lawns. That was the end of the fireflies; the end of the turkeys; the end of the natural beauty that once lurked there.
regularfry 7y ago
20 or 30 years ago, Scientific American published (in the paper magazine) a firefly circuit you could build to see this coupled oscillation happen with physical hardware. I always wanted to build a couple of hundred or so and plaster a room with them, but that's always been ETOOMUCHEFFORT. It's probably worth an update.

Fireflies (2017)

196 points by j_b_s 7y ago

Cool js demo, certainly worth reposting. Since he credits Steven Strogatz here's the link to Steven's 2008 TED on synchronicity and emergent behavior. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSNrKS-sCE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSNrKS-sCE0

dsalzman 7y ago

Nicky Case is amazing. His interactive game to explain segregation in cities is very eye opening as well. https://ncase.me/polygons/ https://ncase.me/polygons/

tunesmith 7y ago
I'd like to see a model like that adapted for vaccinations. So you can easily see the risk (for infants/elderly) dramatically increase as vaccination rates decrease a tiny bit.
- mikk14 7y ago
  Have you tried this: http://vax.herokuapp.com/game http://vax.herokuapp.com/game ?
lukifer 7y ago
Case has brilliant insights into systems: "Peace is not the mere absence of war; health is not the mere absence of disease; success is not the mere absence of disaster." http://longnow.org/seminars/02017/aug/07/seeing-whole-systems/ http://longnow.org/seminars/02017/aug/07/seeing-whole-system...

severine 7y ago

Needs a (2017). Previously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14452832 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14452832

tlb 7y ago
Added (2017), thanks.

isoprophlex 7y ago

What happens if you fix a couple of fireflies on one end of the volume to have a slow clock speed, and a couple on the other side to have higher clock speed? (Also freezing their random motion) What do the fireflies in between do? Would the faster clockspeed win out and entrain them? Do you get chaotic behaviour? Very cool page.

TrueDuality 7y ago

Love this kind of complex behavior emerging from simple rules kind of thing.

modernerd 7y ago

I revisit Fireflies from time to time, but everything on https://ncase.me/ https://ncase.me/ is wonderful. I particularly like https://ncase.me/door/ https://ncase.me/door/. Nicky's site elevates the web beyond “magazines/newspapers/leaflets on a network-connected screen”. It reminds you that the web can be a rich and interactive medium with stories told and ideas taught with love and with care. It feels like there's a gap in the market for tools that help people to build richer experiences and “playable articles” like these. So many content management systems and platforms seem stuck in the “your website is a brochure but online” mindset. In the same way that PowerPoint seems to encourage crappy presentations, traditional tools for website creation often do the same for websites. Coupled with the sheer difficulty of creating and maintaining a website, it's no wonder that blogs and personal sites feel like they're in decline. I'd love to see more tools that let users build sites that aren't just linked pages whose most interactive feature is a contact form or search field. The only one I can think of that's close is https://glitch.com/ https://glitch.com/. Are there others I've missed?

hamaluik 7y ago
Agreed. See also https://www.redblobgames.com/ https://www.redblobgames.com/ that is in a similar realm (though not quite as artsy as Nicky’s)
caffeinewriter 7y ago
https://explorabl.es https://explorabl.es acts as sort of a repository for it. Unsurprisingly created by the irreplaceable and aforementioned Nicky Case.
zamfi 7y ago
There’s also things like https://editor.p5js.org https://editor.p5js.org
- prox 7y ago
  Hey that’s amazing! I could build stuff right away. Thanks.

JoeCortopassi 7y ago

As cool as this is, and it is, this is probably the least interesting thing on the https://ncase.me https://ncase.me website. It's well worth spending an afternoon just going through some of the stuff presented there My two favorites: https://ncase.me/crowds/ https://ncase.me/crowds/ https://ncase.me/trust/ https://ncase.me/trust/

anonytrary 7y ago

This makes me really sad. Right after I went off to college, my parents moved to a new, secluded neighborhood in its infancy -- only a handful of homes there. Our house was the one right next to a tall meadow, protected by a deep forest and a pond. During those summers, you could gaze into the meadow and witness thousands of fireflies putting on a show --- every day, the 4th of July. Occasionally, you could witness huge rafters of turkeys (many dozens) slowly making their way through the fields, their true numbers hidden by low hanging fog. Then in my last couple years of college, the neighborhood matured further into development. The developers slowly turned the woods into meadows, the meadows into dirt fields, the dirt fields into streets, foundations, and lawns. That was the end of the fireflies; the end of the turkeys; the end of the natural beauty that once lurked there.

regularfry 7y ago

20 or 30 years ago, Scientific American published (in the paper magazine) a firefly circuit you could build to see this coupled oscillation happen with physical hardware. I always wanted to build a couple of hundred or so and plaster a room with them, but that's always been ETOOMUCHEFFORT. It's probably worth an update.