Creative Process Simulation — The Idea Cycle

Creative Dynamics

Divergence rate 50%

Selection pressure 50%

Cycle speed 1.0×

Cycle State

Watching the population move through Preparation → Incubation → Illumination → Verification.

Cycles completed

Ideas in flight

Best fitness reached

How it works

Each glowing node is one "idea" travelling around a closed loop, positioned by arc-length parameter t ∈ [0,1). The loop is divided into four stages after psychologist Graham Wallas's classic model of creativity:

t ∈ [0.00, 0.25)  Preparation   — gather material, explore
t ∈ [0.25, 0.50)  Incubation    — undirected drift, subconscious mixing
t ∈ [0.50, 0.75)  Illumination  — sudden fitness spikes ("aha" moments)
t ∈ [0.75, 1.00)  Verification  — held for judgement, then selected

The track's own radius follows r(t) = R·(1 + 0.4·D(t)) with D(t) = (1 + cos 2πt)/2 — wide at Preparation, pinched to a point exactly at Illumination, reopening through Verification. That shape *is* the divergent → convergent → divergent rhythm creativity researchers describe.

Fitness f ∈ [0,1] evolves per stage: a small random walk in Preparation, a larger one (scaled by divergence) in Incubation, and a chance per second of a sudden spike in Illumination. On completing a lap the idea is executed or discarded:

threshold = 0.30 + 0.55 · selection_pressure
f ≥ threshold → idea survives, re-enters at f·0.85
              → with prob. = divergence, spawns a mutated child
f < threshold → idea is discarded

Raise divergence to see more spikes, mutation and branching; raise selection pressure to make survival harder and watch the population's best fitness climb over successive cycles instead.

Preparation Incubation Illumination Verification

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