I can’t seem to find the reference, but in case anyone remembers that study on refining and predicting the control of the distribution of particles via spray nozzle through mutating the design of the nozzle with a method that if I am remembering correctly may have used AI to place the initial nozzle design’s particle distribution results in the center of a 9 square grid, and then the peripheral squares are filled with slightly different nozzles’ particle distribution results.
Or maybe it was the nozzles themselves in the grid, with the periphery being the evolutionary mutation options for the nozzle. Anyway as I recall it provided a breakthrough in the science of narrowing down the nozzle shape needed to produce a desired distribution of particles.
A long time ago there was a plugin for photoshop I liked that used a similar principle, again a 9 square grid, the original image in the center, then the peripheral squares were slight mutations, and varied depending on your chosen filter. e.g. if the only parameter is adding in red, and the center image is blue, then the peripheral squares would range from periwinkle to purple.
Then here is the fun part, which is clicking on a peripheral square brings it to the center. And then the peripheral squares reload, with new data, using the new center reference as the algorithmic starting variable.
So, if this data format / presentation / mechanism were applied to Hyphema’s idea, then users could more quickly and dynamically participate, with a lower barrier of entry due to the knowledge required to do labs. It could be a minigame within the actual lab, to not usurp the more powerful design tools. But it would give new players a way to intuitively, visually recognize patterns.
The presented center and peripheral options could be from a preselected pool of options or parameters, per the curation discussed above. And there could be a full metal randomness option, to mutate peripheral squares to have any selected nts be assigned various [non]canonical pairs, with any tweaking to that concept that is preferred.
It could be criticized as a whack-a-mole version of eterna, but then, that is where games are at these days, and would result in more participation. Of course, feature implementations could be pipe dreams, but with the bar being set so high for time investment and skill acquisition, I feel that exploring this curated + disseminated + mutated from a smartseedRNA suggestion would be beneficial.