No AI: This Creature Is Made Purely With Math

Vitaliy Kaurov, whose similar aquatic creature we shared before, suggests the names DragonSpine or TetherRoot for this one. Like his previous project, he adapted an animation by yuruyurau from P5.js to Wolfram Language and shared more about the process in his blog post, reflecting on how little is needed for us to recognize something alive, just a static shape and motion.

"It's not AI. Just a few sin(x) and cos(x). Tiny code you can fit on a napkin (see below). How can it then generate such visual complexity? And why is the mind so fixated on seeing an 'animal'?", he commented.

Below is the code shared by Vitaliy:

x=N@Range[10000];y=x/235.;
pts[t_]:=Module[{k,e,d,c,q},k=(4+3 Sin[2 y-t]) Cos[x/29.];
e=y/8.-13.;
d=Sqrt[k^2+e^2];
c=d-t;
q=3 Sin[2 k]+0.3/k+Sin[y/25.] k (9+4 Sin[9 e-3 d+2 t]);
Transpose@{q+30 Cos[c]+200.,400-(q Sin[c]+39 d-220.)}];
Manipulate[Graphics[{
White,Opacity[.65],PointSize[.002],Point[pts[t]]},
PlotRange->{{70,330},{30,350}},Background->Black],
{t,0.,2. Pi}]

Check out Emīls Geršinskis-Ješinskis' VEX implementation of a similar mathematical creature: