Bugs and Patterns

Donald K, Robbins and Leigh Hendricks

(Page 81, http://cyberneticserendipity.com/cybernetic_serendipity.pdf)

“If four bugs start on the corners of a square, and start crawling toward each other, what path will they follow?”  If we sit down to map their paths and drew lines to indicate their lines of vision, we will obtain a pattern spiralling inward. This is what is a traditional calculus problem, more commonly known as The Bug Problem. The same mechanism as this, changing the number of bugs and the coordinates they are placed at, will produce different patterns over a period of time.
Digitally, once the path of the bug is specified and put into a program, the subroutine is set. This subroutine may be altered to generate different patterns and different intricacies of patterns.
This system to produce patterns is so self sufficient, that an artist facilitating a computer can produce whatever pattern they may have in mind. Having a process involving computer generated patterns, there can be unlimited bugs going on for as long as one would desire, giving way to endless patterns and possibilities.

The production of similar patterns recurring on a small scale also gives rise to fractal like patterns, that look the same even when zoomed in endlessly. The repetition of the same pattern over and over again makes it appear like a three-dimensional entity.

From what I observed, such patterns are put to use as optical illusions- generated probably only to produce visually appealing designs. However, I also feel that the scope of this application goes beyond just visual patterns. Behavioral trends, habits and consumption patterns can also be mapped out to look at how trends have been and what may be the extent of their possibility and intervention in the future. While these trends may not hold a definitive path like that specified within our subroutines, the generated maps can have differential and integral functions applied to them to see what they may produce. Each of these trends then have the chance to become sub patterns and give rise to a variation of the pre-existing patterns.