Lenia was developed by Bert Wang-Chak Chan in Hong Kong. The name is derived from the Latin word lenis for smooth. Interactive evolutionary computation was used to produce a diversity of complex autonomous patterns or “life-forms” that resemble microscopic organisms in the real world. According to Chan’s description in the scholarly article repository, arXiv, Lenia “life-forms” are different from other cellular automata patterns in that they are geometric, metameric, fuzzy, resilient, adaptive and rule-generic.
Chan’s mathematical life forms which evolved in Lenia won the Virtual Creatures Contest, GECCO 2018, Kyoto and received an honorable mention in Alife Art Award, ALIFE 2018, Tokyo.
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Bert Wang-Chak Chan