LoopLab: Artificial Life

Plant a loop. Watch it make another. Change a cell and see what happens next.

LoopLab brings the surprising world of self-replicating cellular automata to your iPhone and iPad. Crisp, luminous tiles reveal moving signals and growing structures. Watch a colony unfold, zoom in on a tiny circuit, or pause and shape the world yourself.

A LAB YOU CAN PLAY Start in Classic, based on Langton's Loop. Plant ready-made seeds, rotate them, paint individual states and erase cells. Pan and pinch to explore, adjust the pace, pause the action or advance one generation at a time. Try closed edges or a world that wraps around.

LOOK CLOSER Inspect a cell to see its current state and the next transition under the selected model's rules. Switch to scientific view for numeric state labels. Rewind through recent recorded moments, then return to the present to continue your world.

FOLLOW YOUR CURIOSITY Optional discoveries give you something to try: watch the first copy form, break a circuit or bring neighboring loops together. Change a small detail and observe how the result unfolds.

KEEP THE INTERESTING BITS Save named experiments in your local notebook and reopen their exact cells, model and generation. Share a still picture through the iOS share sheet.

EXPAND WITH LOOPLAB PRO The free Classic lab includes its editing tools, discoveries, scientific view, still sharing, 180 recorded history moments and up to five saved experiments.

One optional purchase unlocks: - Renewal, the SDSR model, where dissolution can make room in a colony. - Evolution, the Evoloop model, for exploring variation through local interactions. - The seeds and discoveries for both additional models. - Up to 1,200 recorded history moments and 100 saved experiments. - Branching from a recorded moment, with the original present saved first.

Each family runs in its own world with its own rules. History records simulation batches and edits; a moment may span more than one generation.

Designed for iPhone and iPad in portrait and landscape. Experiments are stored locally. No app account to create, no ads and no subscription. Purchases and restoration use Apple's services.

These are digital models of artificial life. The loops are computer simulations, not living organisms.

Discovery signals