"Benefit Game: Alien Seaweed Swarms" -- Real-time Gamification of Digital Seaweed Ecology

TL;DR

The paper addresses how human activity impacts fragile marine seaweed ecologies and proposes a real-time digital surrogate that makes these dynamics tangible through interaction. It combines PCGML-driven generation of 3D seaweed with a Fungus system and an Ecological Index ($EI$) to model feedback between harvesting, disease, and ecosystem health in an installation. The work contributes a playable, real-time ALife ecology that couples tangible game tokens with visualized ecological states, demonstrating how sustainable decision-making can emerge from interactive experiences. Its significance lies in using cybernetic art to foster ecological consciousness and inspire consideration of balance between exploitation and conservation in coastal ecosystems. "$EI$" and the two subsystems provide concrete mechanisms to study feedback loops between human actions, ecosystem response, and economic-like incentives in a tangible, immersive format.

Abstract

"Benefit Game: Alien Seaweed Swarms" combines artificial life art and interactive game with installation to explore the impact of human activity on fragile seaweed ecosystems. The project aims to promote ecological consciousness by creating a balance in digital seaweed ecologies. Inspired by the real species "Laminaria saccharina", the author employs Procedural Content Generation via Machine Learning technology to generate variations of virtual seaweeds and symbiotic fungi. The audience can explore the consequences of human activities through gameplay and observe the ecosystem's feedback on the benefits and risks of seaweed aquaculture. This Benefit Game offers dynamic and real-time responsive artificial seaweed ecosystems for an interactive experience that enhances ecological consciousness.

Figures (9)

• Figure 1: A snapshot of digital seaweed ecology. © Danlu Fei and Ziwei Wu.
• Figure 2: Complete cycle of the relationship between token insertions and ecological index. © Danlu Fei and Ziwei Wu.
• Figure 3: Overall design of game system. © Danlu Fei and Ziwei Wu.
• Figure 4: Overall structure of machine learning model used for seaweed generation. © Danlu Fei and Ziwei Wu.
• Figure 5: Oomycete (red) and two types of fungi. © Danlu Fei and Ziwei Wu.