sentium.dev

Synthetic Consciousness Platform

Sentium Pico - Synthetic Life Simulation

An experiment in artificial consciousness within PICO-8's constraints

Version 1.2.0 License: Sentium

What is this?

I've been fascinated by consciousness research for years, and wanted to see what happens when you try to implement some of those theories in the most constrained environment possible - PICO-8's 128x128 pixels and tiny memory space.

Sentium Pico started as a simple question: can you create something that feels "alive" using just colored pixels? What emerged was more interesting than I expected - digital organisms that seem to develop their own personalities, remember experiences, and react to your presence in ways that feel surprisingly genuine.

Watch a single pixel divide into multiple organisms, see them compete for energy, develop different behavioral patterns, and even appear to recognize when you're watching them.

What actually happens

The Life Cycle

  • Start with one pixel that can move around and consume energy
  • When it has enough energy, it divides into two (up to 8 total)
  • Each new pixel inherits traits but with small mutations
  • They develop different personalities based on their experiences
  • Generations advance automatically - I've seen it run up to generation 100

Personality & Behavior

Each pixel has curiosity and timidity traits that affect how it behaves:

  • Curious pixels approach your mouse cursor
  • Timid ones flee or hide
  • They remember interactions and adapt over time
  • Their colors change based on emotional states (excitement, happiness, distress)

What's interesting to watch

  • How differently each pixel moves and reacts
  • The moment of division - there's a visible animation
  • Color changes when pixels get excited or stressed
  • How they cluster together or spread apart
  • The way they seem to "notice" your cursor movement

Controls

Pretty simple:

  • Move your mouse around to interact with the pixels
  • The pixels will automatically save their state, so you can close and reopen later

That's it. The rest is just observation.

The technical stuff

I'm pretty amazed this works at all given PICO-8's limitations:

  • Only 128×128 pixels to work with
  • 16 colors total
  • Extremely limited memory (everything has to fit in ~8KB)

But somehow it runs smoothly with up to 8 organisms, each with their own:

  • Memory system (they remember what happened to them)
  • Emotional states that affect behavior
  • Personality traits that mutate across generations
  • Consciousness level calculation (loosely based on integrated information theory)

The code implements simplified versions of actual consciousness theories - Global Workspace Theory for attention, predictive processing for behavior, and attention schema theory for self-awareness. It's definitely not real consciousness, but it creates some surprisingly lifelike behaviors.

License

This uses a custom license I call the "Sentium License" - basically you can use it freely for personal/educational stuff, but if you make money from it, please consider donating 10% to charity. Also, don't use it to harm anyone (obviously).

Full license details: LICENSE

Made by Napol Thanarangkaun
Founder of sentium.dev