u/archon_137

▲ 2 r/alife

Eionic 4 update : Catch 22

I just tweaked the code and changed the values of the world. Some of you may notice that the avatars in the last video were gathered within the nexus most of the time. That was because the parameters were set too tight. So I changed it.

The previous run had action diversity around 2.2 to 2.4. Stable but a bit tight.

This run has action diversity ranging from 2.8 to 3.45 across 3769 ticks. That is about 1.7 years of simulated time. Still stable. Still not chaotic. Just healthier. The system breathes better now.

I call my avatars "primitive avatars" not because they are dumb, but because the world itself is primitive.

No wood. No stone. No "build" action. No crafting. You cannot build a house if the world has no concept of things at all.

So yes, they are primitive by design. The environment limits them, not their engine.

One more thing I am building.

An autobot layer. One avatar from Eionic is learning to access tools independently. Not as a wrapper. The decision comes from its own internal state, its hormones, its fatigue, its curiosity. When it feels the need, it reaches out. No schedule. No human trigger.

Agency first. Tools second. That is the opposite of how most people build agents today. Still early. But the direction is clear.

As some of you know, I built this solo. Nearly three years. No funding. No grants. No sponsors. My monitor is broken. My laptop randomly dies. The agents are more stable than my hardware.

I am not looking for an exit. I am looking for enough to keep going. A grant, a research network, a collaborator who can help with compute or institutional backing.

If anyone knows grants or programs for active inference, autonomous agents, complex systems, artificial life, or AI safety via homeostatic regulation (non LLM), I would appreciate the lead.

But now I need to step back for a while.

My eyes are burning. My hardware is complaining. I cannot keep pushing like this without rest and resources. I am pausing public updates, not stopping forever. Just until I can breathe again.

Eionic will never be perfect, just like our world. But I cannot work alone anymore.

I just added new simulation data for this video plus analysis statistics. Available at the repo.

Eionic Garden

https://github.com/eionic/eionic-garden

The rules are ours. The outcomes are theirs.

If you have leads on grants, funding, or collaboration, reach me on X: EYE_ON_IK [Eionic]

Thank you to everyone who watched, cloned, asked, or believed.

Good luck to all of you. Keep building. Keep questioning. But please, do not destroy yourself in the process.

PS: Sorry for using music this time. I just could not hold myself back from sharing this version.

Music: "The Veldt" by deadmau5 ft Chris James

u/archon_137 — 20 hours ago
▲ 11 r/alife

Quick recap for anyone following: the last run with three avatars held steady for 11,557 ticks without collapsing (logs, statistics, etc in repo). Since then I’ve pushed things further. Now six avatars are running at the same time, already past 5,000 continuous ticks and still stable. I added five zones, home bonding, and social memory. Still no hardcoded, no LLMs, just hormones, fatigue, trauma, and memory driving the system.

Reading the logs in plain text is hilarious. The avatars’ intentions shift with their mood. One moment they’re social, then they hit a stress threshold and retreat home. The behavior is getting more interesting. They avoid zones that hurt them and remember other avatars. One developed chronic high cortisol after too many conflicts, so it’s constantly on edge. Another seeks sanctuary whenever fatigue builds up.

The map is small at 100x100, so movement looks tight. If I scale it up they’ll explore further, but the underlying logic stays the same.

repo:

https://github.com/eionic/eionic-garden/

PS: I'm a solo dev, building all of this on a half‑broken laptop. So if anyone thinks the experiment is hardcore, trust me… it's not just the simulation, it's the hardware too 😂

u/archon_137 — 6 days ago