The Downtown Business Club - Concept

Anthony Ishola U112402

The Downtown Business Club Concept: "In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of species live in societies, and that they find in association the best arms for the struggle for life: understood, of course, in its wide Darwinian sense — not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a struggle against all natural conditions unfavourable to the species."1 The Downtown Athletic Club (DAC) to me represents the ideals of the American Way. "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." The individual literally fights his way through societal strata until sufficiently distilled and purified, evolved and post-human, he emerges the "fittest". Worthy of selfreproduction and access to the elevated levels. The bedrooms where he may finally have his "American Dream." To hack the DAC, I have employed a business incubator as a collectivist social metaphor wherein the objective is not for any party to fail but for all to succeed. If one party is found unable to compete then he is able to transform into a new business model that would work. Aimed at small and medium-scale companies, The layout of the multi-storey Downtown Business Club (DBC) allows for a number of start-up businesses per floor which are arranged in such a manner as to allow similar business of different sizes to cross-feed and help each other succeed. In contrast to the DAC , in the event that a company is unable to thrive, instead of being regarded "unfit" and allowed to die, it may transform into a different model and afforded the necessary assistance to succeed. Code: My Downtown Business Club employs cellular automaton to effect the emergence of a suitable arrangement of companies in the building in an efficient manner as to benefit all participants positively. The 2 main rules for the code are: Within a 2-dimensinal Moore neighbourhood: 1) Any cell (business) with fewer than two identical neighbours lives on to the next generation (on the Z-axis). 2) Any cell with more than two live neighbours (and hence will be drowned out) transforms a different cell in the next generation in order to compete.

1

Peter Kropotkin. Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, (New York: McClure Phillips and Company, 1902) 293.

With a random seed input and using an input of 8 business sectors, the emergent forms comprise a regular pattern of 3 business sectors per floor with single cells representing small scale start-ups, while cell clusters of similar colours represent medium scale companies.