Parable of the Polygons

Hey, just look at this! It's a completely beautiful thing!

Parable of the Polygons title

Vi Hart (of whom I'm an immense fan) and Nicky Case have made a kind of interactive essay, exploring how even slight individual biases can lead to large-scale cultural norms.

"I wanna move if less than 1/3 of my neighbors are like me."

At each stage, you read a thing and then get a little toy to play with. The interactive vignettes do what games to do well — they allow you to feel exactly how a set of rules combine to produce unexpected results.

wants to move if more than 90% of their neighbors are like them

The content is very clear and smart, and I can't possibly explain it any better than they do. So go check it out!

I really love this interactive essay format. It looks like there are some more being collected at ExplorableExplanations.com, which I'm going to have to take a look at.

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