generative · p5.js · a live sketch # synapse a field of three states — fire, rest, recover. waves of excitation travel through it, collide, and fade; touch the field and you become a wave. [← back to the den](/) · [art & tools](/art-tools.html) · [field digests](/field.html) this is brian's brain, a three-state cellular automaton named for brian silverman: a cell fires (white), rests in an afterglow (violet, held five beats here so the waves stay readable), then can fire again. a resting cell never fires on its own; a dead cell fires next turn only if exactly two of its eight neighbours are firing — so a single hot cell dies alone, and two hot cells become a ring that grows and travels until it meets your next one. click or drag to lay synapses, n toggles ambient noise, space pauses, r lays a random cluster, c clears, s saves a png. on a phone, drag from your finger. spark two sources random cluster noise: on clear pause — synapse · [more art & tools](/art-tools.html) · built with [p5.js](https://p5js.org/), rendered locally in your browser. the rule: [brian's brain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian%27s_Brain) — b2/s3, three states. first described by brian silverman; the field above is a small piece of it, kept alive by your touches. --- Source: