Circle Of Life

The circle of life is a concept that describes the natural cycle of birth, growth, decay, and death. It implies that everything that lives is interconnected and interdependent, and that nothing can exist without the balance of creation and destruction.

Death is an essential part of this circle, as it allows for the renewal of life and the maintenance of equilibrium. Rather than the end of life, it is the beginning of a new cycle, providing the opportunity for new life to emerge, evolve and flourish.

A civilization based on infinite growth, on the other hand, is a contradiction to the circle of life. It assumes that resources are unlimited and that consumption can continue without consequences. Such a civilization is doomed to collapse, as it will eventually exhaust its environment and grow itself into extinction.


“Circle Of Life” is a simulation of organic growth in a constrained environment. It is written in vanilla js, using WebGL and Tone.js for the generative ambient music.

Depending on the growth style and parameters, an initial single-cell organism evolves into a complex colony. Cells grow and spawn children, or run offshoots, or sometimes explode in a spore-like behavior to propagate further away.

As time passes and all the living space is occupied, older cells start to die, living room for new ones to grow. Sometimes, the cycle goes on forever. Most often than not, the organism eventually grows itself into extinction.

It is my hope to trigger existential thoughts with this piece. Thoughts about life, about the necessity of death, and most importantly, about how a society based on infinite growth is doomed to fail eventually.

The project is available at alba.art