Random Seed
Stars
Ships
The company, the final form of late stage earth capitalism, originally ran the colonization project with central control. The timescales dwarfed the human lifetime. AGI was a necessity. Faster than light travel remained impossible, but the company controlled a network of low bandwidth wormhole communications that allowed only their ships access to galactic trade information and the credit chain. As distant populations grew this approach started to fail for want of a political consensus. The company relented, licensing trading rights to 1000 individual ships and returning to a free trade system. The licenses birthed dynasties, a single trade run seeing a generation or more of birth and death for the families that owned them.
Ships trade to bring wealth to their family owners, stars trade to ensure they can meet their consumption needs, remain productive and grow their local populations.
Each ship is a pixel, each frame a year. The simulation is running in real time in your browser. Enjoy.
Twitter: @farfuture_xyz