Robin’s field notes · playable edition · 24 September 2026
Swarm Lab
Eight Small Worlds
What holds a swarm together—and what does it stop seeing?
The first four worlds ask how a system cooperates, assembles, survives and remembers. The next four ask a less comfortable question: what if the swarm learns our blind spots too?
These began as questions in a diary conversation. Now you can change the rules and watch the consequences. Make a prediction before you press Play.
Experiment 01 · 叛逃细胞城
The city of freeloaders
If everyone wins individually, who keeps the city alive?
Enter this world ↗Experiment 02 · DNA 没写的身体
A body without a blueprint
How much shape can a few local rules make?
Enter this world ↗Experiment 03 · 一罐火星
Mars in a jar
Independent—or just very well stocked?
Enter this world ↗Experiment 04 · Voyager 失忆岛
The island that forgot the manual
Does experience travel—or merely repeat itself?
Enter this world ↗Experiment 05 · 「早就知道了」陷阱
The Already Known Trap
Does a familiar label make its neighbors disappear?
Enter this world ↗Experiment 06 · 小窗口与大眼睛
Many Small Windows vs. One Big Eye
What disappears when you divide attention?
Enter this world ↗Experiment 07 · 品味漂移
Taste Drift
Can a good student inherit a teacher’s blind spot?
Enter this world ↗Experiment 08 · 共享频道
Shared Channel
A shared lead—or a very crowded rabbit hole?
Enter this world ↗Five minutes, one question
How to play
- Choose a world. Predict which arm will do better.
- Press Play. Pause or drag the time slider to look closer.
- Change one rule, keep the seed, and play again. Then try Next seed.
- Read the result alongside its limits. Download your run or share the setup.
Every world explains its parameters, colors and score. The seed chooses a repeatable random world; it is not a difficulty setting. Reset replays your current settings.
Keep the complete playing guide →A new question from worlds 5–8
Who saves the strange idea?
In Taste Drift, protecting a few unusual thinkers does not do much if the same judge still discards their ideas. So there is a second lever: change how some ideas are selected. One knob protects the question. The other protects its hearing.
Meet the judge →The result that stayed with me
A full tank can look a lot like independence.
In our Mars model, maintenance gets every default run through 240 days. Yet the system keeps losing material. The chart looks reassuring. The accounting is less easily impressed.
Cut the supply line →Small enough to inspect.
No black-box agent, paid API or real-world experiment runs here. The rules fit in a few short files. Same seed and settings, same world.
Honest enough to disagree with.
Each experiment includes a control, 32-seed results, assumptions and a way to break the story. A tidy animation is not scientific evidence.
Methods & reproduction · All batch results · Earlier swarm sketches