tldr: Light badges that breed patterns by communicating with each other. Worth skimming the illustrations are great. "I wanted to make a bit of lighting that m

tldr: Light badges that breed patterns by communicating with each other. Worth skimming the illustrations are great. "I wanted to make a bit of lighting that my campmates could use to stay safe – and optionally stay classy by offering a range of more subtle lighting effects. I also wanted the light patterns to be individually unique, allowing easy identification in dark, dusty nights. However, diddling with knobs and code isn’t a very social experience, and few people bring laptops to Burning Man. I wanted to come up with a way for people to craft an identity that was inherently social and interactive. In an act of shameless biomimicry, I copied nature’s most popular protocol for creating individuals – sex. By adding a peer-to-peer radio in each badge, I was able to implement a protocol for the breeding of lighting patterns via sex."