@ ALIFE 2026 Workshop

16:00 – 17:00 · hack session

🐜 The Emerg-ant Hackathon

Ants are the standing argument that intelligence does not need a head office. A colony has no manager and no blueprint, and it still finds the shortest route to your kitchen before you have finished washing up.

So: build something ant like.

• a turn rule that is learned, not written down
• two crowds that disagree which way is up
• stigmergy
• foraging
• brood sorting
• bridges made out of bodies

NAnts — neural ants: Langton’s ant made trainable, inspired by the NCA architecture. Fork it, or start from scratch.