computer science

Karl Sims

Karl Sims is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Karl Sims rather than just read about it. In short: Karl Sims (born 1962) is a computer graphics artist and researcher, who is best known for using particle systems and artificial life in computer animation. Biography Sims received a B.S. in Life Sciences from MIT in 1984, and a M.S. in computer graphics from the MIT Media Lab in 1987.

Key takeaways

Karl Sims belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Karl Sims to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Karl Sims from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Karl Sims (born 1962) is a computer graphics artist and researcher, who is best known for using particle systems and artificial life in computer animation.

Biography Sims received a B.S. in Life Sciences from MIT in 1984, and a M.S. in computer graphics from the MIT Media Lab in 1987. After receiving his master's degree, Sims worked on special effects software at Whitney/Demos Productions and then was a co-founder of Optomystic. At Optomystic in 1989, Sims developed software for the Connection Machine 2 (CM-2) that animated the water from drawings of a deluge by Leonardo da Vinci, used in Mark Whitney's film Excerpts from Leonardo's Deluge. Sims was later artist-in-residence from 1990 to 1996 at the supercomputer manufacturer and artificial intelligence company Thinking Machines. In 1996, Sims founded and became CEO of GenArts, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company that developed special effects plugins used in film and video production. In 2008 he moved to a role on the board of directors when Insight Partners acquired a majority stake in the company. Sims' animations Particle Dreams and Panspermia used the CM-2 to animate and render various complex phenomena via particle systems. Panspermia was also used as the video for Pantera's 1994 cover of Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan".

Sims wrote landmark papers on virtual creatures and artificial evolution for computer art. His virtual creatures used an artificial neural network to process input from virtual sensors and act on virtual muscles between cuboid 'limbs'. The creatures were evolved to display multiple modes of water and land based movements such as swimming like a sea snake or fish, jumping and tumbling (walking was not achieved). The creatures were also co-evolved in different species to compete for possession of a virtual cube, displaying the red queen effect. The cover of Chris Langton's 1995 book Artificial Life: An Overview uses an image of the creatures generated by Sims. In 1997, Sims created the interactive installation Galápagos for the NTT InterCommunication Center in Tokyo. In this installation, viewers help evolve 3D animated creatures by selecting which ones will be allowed to live and produce new, mutated offspring. His paper "Artificial Evolution for Computer Graphics" described the application of genetic algorithms to generate abstract 2D images from complex mathematical formulae, evolved under the guidance of a human. He used this method to create the video Primordial Dance – which, according to one published study with supplementary video, calls to mind the history of early 20th century abstraction among its several evolutionary themes – as well as parts of Liquid Selves. Genetic Images was an interactive installation also based on this method; it was exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, 1993, as well as Ars Electronica and the Los Angeles Interactive Media Festival. Sims received an Emmy Award in 2019 for outstanding achievement in engineering development. In 1998, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. He has won two Golden Nicas at Prix Ars Electronica, in 1991 and in 1992. He has also received honors from Imagina, the National Computer Graphics Association, the Berlin Video Festival, NICOGRAPH, Images du Futur, and other festivals. He is married to MIT professor Pattie Maes.

Filmography Flow exhibit demonstration, 2020 (Video on YouTube) Seven Experiments in Procedural Animation, 2018 (Video on YouTube) Evolved Virtual Creatures, 1994 (Video on YouTube) Liquid Selves, 1992 (Video on YouTube) Primordial Dance, 1991 (Video on YouTube) Panspermia, 1990 (Video on YouTube) (Incorporated into Beyond the Mind's Eye, 1992) ) Particle Dreams, 1988 (Video on YouTube) Excerpts from Leonardo's Deluge, 1989 – software developer Locomotion Studies, 1987 (Video on YouTube)

Publications Karl Sims (August 1990). "Particle Animation and Rendering Using Data Parallel Computation". SIGGRAPH '90 Proceedings: 405–413. Karl Sims (1992). "Choreographed Image Flow". Journal of Visualization and Computer Animation. 3: 31–43. doi:10.1002/vis.4340030106. Karl Sims (July 1991). "Artificial Evolution for Computer Graphics". SIGGRAPH '91 Proceedings: 319–328. Karl Sims (July 1994). "Evolving Virtual Creatures". SIGGRAPH '94 Proceedings: 15–22. Karl Sims (1994). Brooks & Maes (ed.). "Evolving 3D Morphology and Behavior by Competition". Artificial Life IV Proceedings. MIT Press: 28–39. Karl Sims (1992). "Interactive Evolution of Dynamical Systems". Proceedings of the First European Conference on Artificial Life. MIT Press: 171–178. Karl Sims (1993). "Interactive Evolution of Equations for Procedural Models". The Visual Computer. Springer-Verlag: 466–476. Crow, Demos, Hardy, McLaughlin, Sims (1989). "3D Image Synthesis on the Connection Machine". International Journal of High Speed Computing. World Scientific: 329–347.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Lehman, Clune, Misevic,..Sims,.. (2020). "The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution". Artificial Life. 26 (2). MIT Press: 274–306. arXiv:1803.03453. doi:10.1162/artl_a_00319. PMID 32271631. S2CID 4519185.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

See also Artificial life Evolved virtual creatures Evolutionary robotics

References

External links Karl Sims home page Virtual creatures pictures & movies Thomas Dreher: History of Computer Art Chap. IV.3.2: Evolutionary Art of William Latham and Karl Sims

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Karl Sims

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Karl Sims claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Karl Sims before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Karl Sims ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Karl Sims

In research: Karl Sims appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Karl Sims in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Karl Sims is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1962 births, AI art, American digital artists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Karl Sims outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Karl Sims in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Karl Sims means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Karl Sims out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Karl Sims in simple terms?

Karl Sims (born 1962) is a computer graphics artist and researcher, who is best known for using particle systems and artificial life in computer animation. Biography Sims received a B.S. in Life Sciences from MIT in 1984, and a M.S. in computer graphics from the MIT Media Lab in 1987.

Why does Karl Sims matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Karl Sims?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Karl Sims.