jBiomorph

Also: Click Here to Watch Biomorph Animation


Instruction:

Bimorph is an exploration game where you select creatures and watch them evolve.  There is no goal, no winning or losing.   You may stop playing whenever you like.

In the applet window above, you should see a breeder with five possible descendants.  The breeder is shown on the large window, the descendants are on the small windows.  A descendant inherits all of the breeder's genes, except that one of the genes is altered.  This gene alteration causes different looks between the descendants.  However, you will notice that a descendant always bear some resemblance to its breeder, no matter how small those resemblance are.

Click the descendant that you like the most, and that descendant becomes the breeder of the next generation.   Keep doing this, and you may eventually end up with a completely different creature than the one you start with.  This illustrates an evolution process, where cumulative small changes carried over time will eventually make a big difference.  (Darwinian evolution is called natural selections, or survival of the fittest What is illustrated here is an unnatural selections or cumulative selections.)

(After the fifth generation, the Evolution History button will be enabled.  Clicking this button will suspend the breeding mode, and you will see animations showing the evolution of the biomorph - up to the current generation.)  

  • Use the Monochrome mode unless you have a fast machine.
  • To see sample biomorph creatures, click here.
  • If you have a larger screen, you may try a larger screen version.

Version History:
(10-98) Added Evolution History button.  Monochrome mode is now changed to plain-green, as opposed to shades-of-green to make rendering faster. 
(6-98) Added color mode.  Fix repainting bug.
(12-97) Initial version.

Background & Acknowledgement:
The original Biomorph theory is created by Richard Dawkins, and is presented in Dawkins' book The Blind Watchmaker.  Dawkins is a professor at Oxford University in England.  Reference: Dawkins, Richard. The Blind Watchmaker. New York: W. W. Norton. 1987.

This Java applet is
(C) Copyright 1997, 1998 F. Permadi
programmed by F. Permadi
(permadi@psych.ucla.edu)
You are visitor since December 20, 1997.

 

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