🧬 WebGPU Self-Replicating Programs

This project is a WebGPU implementation of "Computational Life: How Well-formed, Self-replicating Programs Emerge from Simple Interaction" by Google researchers Blaise Agüera y Arcas et al. (📄 arXiv 2406.19108). The original study explores how initial chaos and simple rules can lead to the emergence of self-replicating structures—this implementation brings it to the browser.

✨ Features

• WebGPU Integration: Both the renderer and the simulation logic run on WebGPU. Each program is executed in parallel, so it runs smoothly in modern web browsers.​
• Animated Visualization: Real-time graphical representation of the tape, showing how programs evolve and undergo natural selection.

🧐 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• A modern WebGPU-compatible browser (latest Chrome, Edge, or Safari).
• Node.js & NPM (for local development).

Running the Simulation

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Ebernn/webgpu-self-replicating-programs.git

2. Install dependencies: npm install

3. Start the local server: npm run start

4. Visit http://localhost:3000/ in your browser

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you find a bug or have an improvement, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request. I'm still learning WebGPU! 🎓

⚖️ License

MIT – Do whatever you want. But if your self-replicating programs evolve into sentient AI, that’s on you 😂

🔬 Shoutout to the authors of the paper for the cool experiment!