A spot expands, splits, moves around a boundary. Before we have decided what we are looking at, our language has already moved: it grew, it escaped, it reproduced.
These words help describe the numbers in BAŞKA. They might also lend those numbers an intention.
When we give it a name
Call a pattern “Islands” and the gaps might look like sea. Call it “Cells” and the same gaps might read differently. Changing the name does not change a single calculation in the model.
Try a small experiment: watch Coral while thinking “map”, then look again while thinking “scar”. Notice where each word draws your attention, independently of the image.
Leaving the metaphor open
Calling a pattern alive does not mean we have tested it against a criterion for life. What this site shows is a grid updated by specified rules. Names are shortcuts for approaching it.
There is no need to discard the metaphor. It helps us be surprised. We can still distinguish between describing a computation and describing what it brings to mind.
The next look
Try describing the same picture without a verb. Instead of “growing”, what do you see? More dark cells, a wider boundary, a different spacing?
Then put the verb back. See which description helps with which question.