This reminds me of a coding adventure YT video that replicates slime molds in Unity, look at the end to see some high res videos of it - https://youtu.be/X-iSQQgOd1A
Coding Aventure is one of my favorite intellectual(?) exploration channels, along with Primer, who's had a great string of genetic/evolution simulation videos exploring the emergent evolution of society
The article credits that video directly for inspiration.
Whoops, didn't see that. I thought it was a little peculiar that there were two things about simulating mold in a week in my feeds; but I just chalked it up to frequency bias. Now I'm wondering if all the 3d printed cycloidal drive stuff I've been seeing is more than just coincidence...
I wonder if previous 'Coding Adventures' videos have prompted similar 'coincidences' with people wondering why they are suddenly seeing procedural planets popping up all over the place :)