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Generative-design

Articles and publications tagged Generative-design across the Atmosphere.

13articles2publications
Close Read
Close ReadOct 18, 2026
When AI plays your users
Nielsen Norman Group compared 120 AI respondents with 604 real people. Plus: job hunting with agents, an open-source design canvas, and a voice journal with a character.
artificial intelligencedesign
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comDec 2, 2019
Building Block Hypothesis
The building block hypothesis (Goldberg): Genetic algorithms select for compact genes that encode impactful traits, because a short gene is less likely to be disrupted by mutation and crossover than is a long gene, which has more exposed surface…
evolutiongenerative-design
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comDec 2, 2019
Composable alphabets
Good alphabets compose at multiple levels. Letters combine into words, which describe ideas. DNA basepairs combin into genes, which encode traits. Minecraft lets you craft new blocks with new properties from combinations of other blocks. When…
generative-designsystems
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comDec 1, 2019
Alphabets
Emergence springs from alphabets. An alphabet is a kit of parts, together with rules for combining them. Christopher Alexander. "Systems Generating Systems" Architectural Design 38, no. December 1968 (1968): 605-610. If you want to provoke…
generative-designsystems
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comDec 1, 2019
Genetic algorithms
Genetic algorithm design patterns : Principle of Meaningful Building Blocks. Learn from the building block hypothesis and find a coding that can express short, low-order schemata that are relevant to the underlying problem and relatively unrelated…
evolutiongenerative-design
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comDec 1, 2019
Small alphabets
When designing alphabets for emergence, constrain the alphabet, but don't constrain what may be written with it. Constrain the alphabet . Keeping the alphabet small makes it easy to learn. It also forces you, the designer, to create a composable…
generative-designsystems
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comNov 24, 2019
Punctuated equilibrium
Complex systems exist in punctuated equilibrium, repeatedly evolving through distinct phases of randomness, growth, consolidation, and collapse. (Phase 1) Random : The system is unstructured. Random events occur without particularly changing the…
evolutiongenerative-design
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comNov 24, 2019
Ecology meta-patterns
Emergent patterns that recur in complex adaptive systems : Diversity Recirculation Niche and hierarchy Coevolution Diversity : an ecology is an economy made up of many currencies. Different species have different goals, and those goals interlock in…
evolutiongenerative-design
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comMay 9, 2019
Agent
From Signals and Boundaries , MIT Press: when a system is capable of reprogramming itself in response to outside signals, it can be modeled as an adaptive agent . Agents are enclosed within a boundary. Agents filter outside signals through…
generative-designsystems
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comSep 15, 2018
Procedural paintbrush
Procedural paintbrushes are creative tools that augment your input. An insight from Procedural Generation in Game Design, Generative Art Toys, by Kate Compton. A good procedural paintbrush is... Smarter than a pencil Constrains and magnifies your…
generative-designtools
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comSep 8, 2018
Generative Grammar
Generative grammars let you build generative systems that produce variety , and structure . A generative grammar describes a set of rules for constructing meaningful sentences from individual words. "Sentence" and "word" are…
gamesgenerative-design
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comDec 25, 2017
Provoking emergence
So how do you provoke emergence? It's a process of gardening, not architecture . Collecting patterns... Examples of emergent behavior Biological evolution Flocking Conway's Game of Life Wikipedia Etherpad + pirate party Minecraft urls and linking…
evolutiongenerative-design
gordonbrander.com
gordonbrander.comDec 24, 2017
Evolution
Evolution is a behavior that emerges in any system that has: Mutation Heredity Selection Evolutionary systems often generate unexpected solutions. Nature selects for good enough. There is no such thing as advantageous in a general sense. There is…
evolutiongenerative-design

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