# ☣ N Ǝ M Ʌ T O D E ☣ : Reverse Engineering OpenWorm and Executing its Genetic Mutation in SETHIX Substrate By [Iain Ball](https://paragraph.com/@iainball) · 2026-09-05 openworm c elegans, webgl2 generative art, interactive nematode simulation, digital genetic mutation, gyroid diamond lattice, computational biology visualization, living mathematical substrate, cybernetic parasite organism, webxr artificial life, fourier morphospace art --- ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/32cf727f0b34dadd3a4ebbb2f8b9944090b802b87a3f66e5ca2e92b57f1fa89d.png) ☣ N Ǝ M Ʌ T O D E ☣ Explores the theme of parasitic infection by a cybernetic organism feeding on computational and mathematical substrate. =========================================================================================================================================== [ Transmutation XLVII #47 - Substrate Transmutation \[SETHIX\] by Iain Ball | OpenSea ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pure WebGL SETHIX modules https://opensea.io ![Transmutation XLVII #47 - Substrate Transmutation [SETHIX] by Iain Ball | OpenSea](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/c2d821c8e05497ca28169758ae8bf3a85d850cb832e01b7dd96fec470423c110.png) ](https://opensea.io/item/ethereum/0x71eb648bdd6ebb161dcda890dfadd1d28972ea42/47) [ ☣ N Ǝ M Ʌ T O D E ☣ ------------------- Drag to orbit the animal, wheel or pinch to zoom. Steering acts only through the head: the animal turns by bending deeper to one side, as the real worm does. Release the keys and, after four seconds, it goes back to exploring on its own. https://2l2vjnywiqwyxttr62qxqxrfc6hpr4iptrftz7vimuvcvr3vnwnq.arweave.net ](https://arweave.net/0vVUtxZELYvOcfaheF4lF4748Q-cSzz-qGUqKsd1bZs) This pure WebGL2 project reverse engineers a virtual C.elegans roundwom (a free-living transparent nematode) from OpenWorm public science, then inserts it into the cubic Fourier morphospace of [Nodal Morph](https://paragraph.com/@iainball/computational-morphogenesis) (Transmutation XLI) as Sethix module. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ### The worm swims, feeds and tunnels through the substrate. As it does, it gradually begins to genetically mutate based on its diet. ### **Its environmental lattice is alive:** Implemented as a slow cut of **Nodal Morph XLI**'s drifting morphospace. Over minutes the sheets and struts around the worm change family - P sheet to gyroid to diamond to tube lattice - the way rock would if you could watch it for an age; the skin of the matter shifts material in epochs of a few minutes. Cell sheets are soft matter - as firm as rock until eaten. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/a2fbb0112825588986f4fd046842a87be0f4d8c39dc8ac839fbd42a1e0420b74.jpg) Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS,) which the worm tunnels through and eats. The worm has to press its nose against the sheet, chew, take a mouthful every half second and work the narrow bore wider with its body before it can squeeze through; the gel drags at whatever is buried in it; the matter it eats feeds the gut a little. Tunnels are scars in living tissue: they heal slowly, pinch and are overwritten as the field moves on. Dense rock, the registration rods and the red cage are impassable; a moving wall carries the animal with it. Gene-3/7/9 blooms are food. What the animal eats, slowly, becomes it: a snack changes nothing, but minutes of feeding in one region of the lattice write that substrate onto its body - gut first, then puncta, skin, relief and light - and two lives fed differently become different mutations. Left alone, the worm keeps a map of where it has been and swims for places it has not seen, remembers blooms and follows their scent when its gut runs low, feeds, searches the neighbourhood after a patch runs out, plans a way round obstacles, and reverses out of dead ends with an omega turn. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/055767d83a39807ba9d790629d21678d353ddd7c76235f8fa36ca4a47b2f2733.png) ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/d74b7e797574b1b010edc5f670293629d67f427fcc994a8d5be5b2575dac7db5.png) ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/03b6a689a64ec301186fb360ca685721afda102555fabd484c7641d8aa73200c.png) * * * ☣ N Ǝ M Ʌ T O D E ☣ has a life of its own and is also controllable via standard alphanumeric directional keys (WASD) and dedicated arrows on keyboard. You can plug in a gaming controller or VR/XR with full immersive support via WebXR session manager in the console controls (I do not have a headset of my own so I cannot verify how well it works.) Control of the worm can force direction of its feeding patterns and thus its evolution. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/1e73fcb1a2e9411a778bc3b65a3121551acae87532130447abe5978fac568e52.png) VR/XR The worms body can become injured, damaged, or permanently disabled by its environment. Recovery and damage control patches are in place, but full recovery is not always guaranteed. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/193be3af9bb5f562d6c2d4b2d92d2e1acce4943e326a3b1daeceeef02d65ea3f.png) Injury Click the title in the bottom righthand corner of the canvas to view the information card which reveals the worms name, controls, and console access information. Each load produces a random timeline identity which can be revisited by adding ?seed= plus hash to the Arweave url. Example: [https://arweave.net/0vVUtxZELYvOcfaheF4lF4748Q-cSzz-qGUqKsd1bZs?seed=17d6538fa7abb8698889fba4ef83fd12f0bcc6328d2a8280d222adcaec334469](https://arweave.net/0vVUtxZELYvOcfaheF4lF4748Q-cSzz-qGUqKsd1bZs?seed=17d6538fa7abb8698889fba4ef83fd12f0bcc6328d2a8280d222adcaec334469) ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/d38407526516396ecacd56516b1e9bd8e2228b71884e8cc4b88a160d6e7dbd9c.png) Click the title in the bottom righthand corner of the canvas to access the seed, browser view, controls, and console information Each load hatches a unique worm ------------------------------- Each seed is still a _C. elegans_. The first 32 bits of the hash are not a new species — they are a small hatchling kit. Same body plan, slightly different individual. The piece treats those 32 bits as genoSeed, runs a tiny xorshift RNG from them, and draws nine traits. The comment in the source code is: the same word founds the same animal at t=0t = 0t=0; the life after is its own. ### What actually differs at hatch Trait Range What you notice **Tail taper** ±12% tail radius Skinnier or fuller rear **Head fullness** ±7% head radius Blunter or sharper nose **Wave phase** 000–2π2\\pi2π Where the first swim undulation sits **Hatch heading** 000–2π2\\pi2π Which way it is pointing when life starts (it then picks the most open hatch line near that heading) **Starting gut** mass 666–282828 Food already in the gut — **below** the threshold that paints the body, so you should not see the rainbow yet **Gut bias** 000 sheet … 111 bloom Whether that starter gut leans toward lattice tissue or bloom country **Dorsoventral bias** ±3% muscle asymmetry A slight built-in tendency to veer one way **Cuticle hue** ±4% warmth A faint warmer or cooler tint on the skin **Restlessness** 0.80.80.8–1.21.21.2 Tempo of the ethogram: how briskly it switches roam / feed / search / escape The nervous system is seeded from the same word xor’d with a constant (0x9e3779b9), so two seeds also get slightly different decision timing, not just different silhouettes. What does _not_ change with the first word ------------------------------------------ * It is always the same worm model: tapering rod, head-steered bends, omega turns, four-second return to autonomy. * The colours/patterns visible in the screenshot below are **not** genotype. Those come later from meals. * The **world** (where Gene-3 / 7 / 9 blooms sit, which lattice cells are rock, the field’s salt) comes from the **second** 32-bit word of the same 256-bit hash. Same named seed ⇒ same animal _and_ same map. A different seed usually means a different animal _and_ a different pantry. How different they look in practice ----------------------------------- At t=0t = 0t=0 the animals are close cousins. You would notice a fatter tail, a warmer cuticle, a different starting angle — not a new creature. After a few minutes they diverge much more, because: 1. starting heading + veer bias send them into different tunnels, 2. restlessness changes how long they dwell on a patch, 3. the map they hatch into (second word) puts different food in those tunnels, 4. diet then overwrites gut → puncta → skin → light. So the seed’s “genotype” is a modest individual offset. The colourful uniqueness is almost entirely biography. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/886c2b8fa74ba643b39c2335cb06bc99e7f5963d0b2d0a05dd714faa87f428f6.png) ce60068af4451b556d56b4ccc23ec55d631c5fcc57a1dd07ec630cc6bce0dab8 * * * Mutations = new body plans written by feeding on the lattice ------------------------------------------------------------ Blooms of genes 3, 7, and 9 — cyan, green, gold — are treated as bacteria. A grazer takes on a luminous wash, scattered hot-pink puncta, and, late, glowing tips. Soft cell sheet, the living minimal surface it has to chew through, writes skin domains in the lattice’s own palette: rainbow annuli, purple Voronoi, the epoch of the field (P, gyroid, diamond, tube) worn as cuticle. Bites along the drawn net, the rods, or a hard junction write lattice: cooler skin, ridges, wire traces, and, at full constitution, a crust of faceted geology. Mixed feeding rotates through all three, so inclusions and stripes occupy the same body. Colour is not averaged to grey; the dominant bloom gene wins. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/dbffe736ec93734dd2717d7aa7a28eed575c403a9a506ba8408d66084b31c9db.jpg) Mutations * * * ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/00d541c25c48eb08135ef9b7a498bb00ffd0c8f69e2d806ce40ba05dfc6b1b8a.png) ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/aa2fe76e8101f44b4114e27c45e308de6a5a2c84eb3008235d0a739fb035955f.png) ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/25803c52d4036d7980258b7105e5c1c220a71030b50d154924721138b75ffdbe.avif) Thanks to OpenWorm ([https://openworm.org/](https://openworm.org/)) and Claude Fable 5.1 on max effort for making this project possible. * * * **☣ In wider S-Risk (SETHIX Risk/Suffering Risk) studies SETHIX considers how non-human, alien, extraterestrial, hybrid, and synthetic intelligences increasingly challenge or threaten human evolution; whether they be agentic swarms, sentient malware, plasmoid based non-terrestrial life, biological non-human or human-like ETs, genetic hybrids, or cyborgian/transhuman individuals. ☣** * * * **SETHIX. S-9.** --- *Originally published on [Iain Ball](https://paragraph.com/@iainball/nematode)*