Nerve garden: germinating biological metaphors in net-based virtual worlds

摘要

Nerve Garden is a biologically-inspired multi-user collaborative 3D virtual world available to a wide Internet audience. The project combines a number of methods and technologies, including L-systems, Java, cellular automata, and virtual reality modeling language. Nerve Garden is a work in progress designed to provide a compelling experience of a virtual terrarium which exhibits properties of growth, decay and energy transfer reminiscent of a simple ecosystem. The goals of the Nerve Garden project are to create an on-line "collaborative artificial life laboratory" which can be extended by a large number of users for purposes of education and research.