VG Project Case Study

Cell City

Cell City is set in the year 2057, the polar ice caps have melted and society is struggling to cope with the rapid environmental changes.

People now occupy cells that form the building blocks of the new city.

The cells have been designed to operate as digital stem cells, this develop into one of four different cell phenotypes; Residential, Energy, Agriculture, Recreational.

The city is organised by a master GA (genetic algorithm) which attempts to maximise population and minimise energy usage. A cell is deemed 'fit' when it can be considered completely self sufficient within a radius of one hectare.

The governing GA makes all decisions even down to locations of waste/servicing ducts.

After 80,000 iterations the city is considered 62.8% self sufficient and complex dependencies have evolved to maintain the 'optimum' ecosystem.

The GA has no consideration for human happiness, its goal is to maximise population, increase life expectancy and reduce energy usage.

The GA is slowly trapping its inhabitants within the cities walls as it has been deemed inefficient for humans to travel more than one hectare from their cells.

The GA demands that every inhabitant within the city do two hours exercise per day in order to generate an extra 28.02W/person/hour and to increase body fitness and extend life expectancy.

The algorithm uses Cellular Automata to establish communication between cells. The algorithm is inherently greedy and all cells become potential parasites within the developing system.

In early experiments there was no function to maximise population, the algorithm had been designed to maximise energy efficiency throughout the system. This system very quickly got rid of all humans from the city. The city then began to optimise to generate as much energy as possible without any energy 'wasting' human elements.

The emergent city was a paradise of grassy agricultural fields and forests, It almost seemed a shame to introduce humans back into the city.