🧪 Creative Thinking Simulation

This simulation demonstrates how creative ideas emerge from a semantic network of concepts through spreading activation — the cognitive-science model (Collins & Loftus) behind free association and brainstorming. Concepts cluster into eight categories connected by dense strong links within a category and sparse lateral links across categories. Seeding a concept injects activation that propagates outward every tick, fading unless refreshed; a divergence control widens or narrows how far it spreads (convergent vs. divergent thinking), and a lateral-weight control governs how readily activation crosses into unrelated categories — the mechanism Edward de Bono called lateral thinking. Live readouts count the ideas currently active, their average associative distance from the seed, and a novelty index measuring how many of those ideas came from outside the seed's own category.