[whilenot-dev]

The automata just completely destroys the image if I draw too much over the stabilized image with the brush. 5 horizontal swipes are enough to destroy the kitty, is that to be expected?

EDIT: video here: https://imgur.com/a/ItZGd5X

[esychology]

The NeuralCA both generates and maintains the pattern. Because the NCA was not exposed to damage or erasure during training, its regeneration capability is a purely emergent phenomenon. However, this ability remains somewhat brittle, particularly when the central regions of the pattern are erased.

[mackenney]

I would love to see two seeds competing for space in the grid

[WhiteNoiz3]

With the old model (and I suspect this one too) it's trained to generate from a single 'seed' pixel in the center of the image. If you erase the center of the image, that's when it completely collapses.

[oersted]

It must be more general than that, otherwise the cells wouldn’t be able to repair their area if the damage came from the wrong direction (repair is not center-out).

The model generally learns to generate each pixel from its surroundings, even if the surroundings are partially missing.

[WhiteNoiz3]

There's hidden state in the model which presumably it uses to communicate position, ie there's the 3 colors but then a bunch of other channels that the model can use how it wants.

[cl3misch]

Have you actually tried that? If you specifically erase the center, the image does change a lot at first, but rebuilds itself eventually (albeit to a slightly different final state). It's uncanny how "biological" is feels!

[Mithriil]

If you hold the eraser for a second at the center, I find that it destroys the image more often than not.

[WhiteNoiz3]

I have yes.. You need to erase a larger amount of the center, but it almost always results in a collapse wheras erasing around the center typically regrows.