I figured it was something like that as well. Looks visually impressive if you don't know the trick. I had thought about assigning edges and guaranteeing they met in the backstage area, then almost as quickly realized it'd be way easier to take the solid, break it into pieces that fly off, then do that, time-reversed, in the backstage.
I liked the life one too. The x61.51 framerate has no movement at all other than the shapes changing and I don't really know why. I'm assuming it must be a framerate where my brain can't actually parse any movement but I have no idea.
Also, not sure if this is intentional or some ios specific bug/unintended feature, but you can do a quick 2-finger “zoom” motion, lift up your fingers, and it’ll keep zooming in at a constant speed. Then you can “steer” with one finger. It is mesmerizing.
Playing with it a bit more, it feels really intentional. You really have to… for lack of a better phrase “fling yourself inwards” with the zoom to get it to keep moving.
The level of dread felt is like taking just a wee bit too much acid and feeling the universe collapsing in and exploding back out on itself. Not that I've ever experienced that.
At Paddington station in London there's a clock on the side of a building that appears to have someone inside it, manually drawing on the hands each minute. Its pretty neat
I've heard of this before and while this is a really cool idea, it makes for a very bad clock, because you sometimes have to wait for several seconds to tell how much time it is.
It is a fun experience. You go in there with no instructions and no idea what is going on. You quickly figure out how you can interact with it and what is going on within that little world and try and make sense of it. Then you notice the title and try and piece that in with that model you've just created. And then you get to wonder if you are reading too much into it and it is just a fun little toy someone built or if there is some artistic story.
Yo I'm glad you like it!! I made it over a few days by giving instructions to GPT-4. About 80% of the time it would get my desired functionality exactly right. When I named it society.htm it looked and worked a lot differently, but I think the name still applies. I've started writing a readme for it but got distracted with other projects. Here is the github for it https://github.com/mnenoff/society-htm
it eventually loads, it's transferring >10MB into the "GPU" as a texture, as well as starting the overall meta-meta simulation. I am using a junk oneplus and it took about 15-20 seconds to start, but after that it was smooth like butter.
I had something akin to a religious experience when I saw this for the first time, and reading the explanation blew my mind. One of the coolest things I've ever seen on the internet.
I'm curious about why exactly this is so anxiety-inducing. I have multiple hypotheses: a) the way the numbers only come together for a moment means you need to concentrate. b) the feeling of objects being flung towards you. c) the color scheme. d) the frenetic, jittery movement of the blocks, kind of like insects. e) The large number of objects moving unpredictably makes it hard to track. f) The passage of time. g) Every 10 seconds, the digits get pounded and blocks fly at you.
This is probably over-analysis, but it's interesting that so many people have the same reaction to this page.
For me it's simply the fact that the blocks get destroyed every second. It really enhances the 'time is fleeting' feeling. Every second is unique and you're never ever getting it back.
It makes me worry about the invisible minions that are pushing the blocks into place. They only have a second, blocks are falling, how can the get it to the right numbers in time? But as soon as the numbers are legible, the blocks for the next number are already falling, and the invisible minions must jump straight to working on those blocks without a moments rest, second after second, nonstop for eternity.
I was way too focused on how slow this is running on my phone, sometimes skipping two seconds even. So I had no chance to actually think about what I'm seeing in a deeper way.
If you need the literal opposite of this site, I made Sit. (https://sit.sonnet.io) which is not even a clock, but a timer for sitting down and doing f*ck all.
I like the idea of this project, we need more semi-useless toys in our lives. I almost wish that every piece of software I use were customisable and themeable like Winamp. (or certain every-day objects ranging from fashion to gadgets to human skin via tattoos)
Yup, that's one of the reasons I added the intro modal with a call-to-action:)
The handler triggering full screen (el.requestFullscreen) needs to be in the same call stack as a user interaction event. Same with triggering audio playback programmatically.
I'm actually using audio as a fallback to prevent the device from falling asleep (via nosleep.js, modern APIs do exist, but I don't trust Apple with PWAs).
When I was younger, I was impressed by the technical feat of demos like this.
Nowadays, while still impressive, the technical mystery has faded somewhat. What's even more impressive to me though is the discipline, time and motivation management to deliver something of this caliber. Hats off!
I agree, except when we were younger, these were also greater technical feats.
Back when VRML was trying to be a thing, I suggested "they" stop wasting their time on uber nerdy games with arcane controller patterns, and just produce a 3D window manager with really nice transitions to use for ordinary desktop things.
VRML was definitely weird / ahead of its time. Reading about it at the time, and only having modest hardware, I was under the impression that the powerful machines back then could render VR in realtime. Heh 20+ years later and we're still not fully there yet.
I find it invigorating in a way - there's a constant stream of fresh new seconds coming your way, moments you've never before seen in your life and so could hold anything in them.
But I can understand the anxiety a lot of people seem to be feeling at this: I had (and have) a similar response to WaitButWhy's [Your Life in Weeks](https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html) post.
One of the cooler articles I read on HN was about how Mandarin speakers consider the past spatially in front of them and the future spatially behind them. This is the opposite of English, which tends to consider the past as "behind us".
The English way is based on movement: we are moving forward into the future and our past is what we are leaving behind.
The Mandarin way is about knowledge: we can see the past (hence it is in front of our eyes) while we cannot know the future (as it is behind us.)
Even if, linguistically, Mandarin doesn't speak of looking forward towards the future, China is known for strategically investing and planning for payoffs multiple decades/generations into the future.
Language does affect thought, but apparently, in this case, speaking of not being able to see the future apparently doesn't preclude actively shaping it.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 194 ms ] threadFelt quite different as I stumbled upon this when it was 00:00:01.
https://oimo.io/works
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33566924
jfc, this one is absolutely fucking insane, reminds me of DMT:
https://oimo.io/works/life/
"Ah, neat, but what am I missing?" I said before I figured out you could zoom.
Edit: Oh shit you can zoom out too.
Also, not sure if this is intentional or some ios specific bug/unintended feature, but you can do a quick 2-finger “zoom” motion, lift up your fingers, and it’ll keep zooming in at a constant speed. Then you can “steer” with one finger. It is mesmerizing.
https://secretldn.com/clock-man-paddington-station/
If it were just names floating by using the same animation, it would have the same effect, I think.
It is a fun experience. You go in there with no instructions and no idea what is going on. You quickly figure out how you can interact with it and what is going on within that little world and try and make sense of it. Then you notice the title and try and piece that in with that model you've just created. And then you get to wonder if you are reading too much into it and it is just a fun little toy someone built or if there is some artistic story.
Just... how.
[1]: https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/a/111932
[2]: https://copy.sh/life/?gist=f3413564b1fa9c69f2bad4b0400b8090&...
Reminds me not to spend to much time on computers and be more present. I love it. Like a wake up alarm for life.
This is probably over-analysis, but it's interesting that so many people have the same reaction to this page.
I like the idea of this project, we need more semi-useless toys in our lives. I almost wish that every piece of software I use were customisable and themeable like Winamp. (or certain every-day objects ranging from fashion to gadgets to human skin via tattoos)
The handler triggering full screen (el.requestFullscreen) needs to be in the same call stack as a user interaction event. Same with triggering audio playback programmatically.
I'm actually using audio as a fallback to prevent the device from falling asleep (via nosleep.js, modern APIs do exist, but I don't trust Apple with PWAs).
I feel like it gives me more control over my time. I can get back to reality at my own pace.
Why I built it and how I use it: https://sonnet.io/posts/sit/
https://oimo.io/works/water3d/
Cloth is very cool too.
https://oimo.io/works/cloth/
Jelly: click on the sphere to tear it apart.
https://oimo.io/works/jelly/
Same but then I found the reload button. I think my daughter is going to enjoy that "jelly" a lot!
Nowadays, while still impressive, the technical mystery has faded somewhat. What's even more impressive to me though is the discipline, time and motivation management to deliver something of this caliber. Hats off!
Back when VRML was trying to be a thing, I suggested "they" stop wasting their time on uber nerdy games with arcane controller patterns, and just produce a 3D window manager with really nice transitions to use for ordinary desktop things.
But I can understand the anxiety a lot of people seem to be feeling at this: I had (and have) a similar response to WaitButWhy's [Your Life in Weeks](https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html) post.
The English way is based on movement: we are moving forward into the future and our past is what we are leaving behind.
The Mandarin way is about knowledge: we can see the past (hence it is in front of our eyes) while we cannot know the future (as it is behind us.)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cogs.12804
Language does affect thought, but apparently, in this case, speaking of not being able to see the future apparently doesn't preclude actively shaping it.