Walking Things is an environment that generates small, walking computational organisms. Each walking thing is built up from totally random conditions. Appearance, behavior, and walking characteristics are all assigned from a range enabling effective, functional mobility. Click on a walking thing to permutate its characteristics. The Flash MX programming environment is perfectly suited for building these types of creatures. Each bug is composed of a set of smaller parts which some, in turn, are composed of even smaller parts. This hierarchical assembly makes programming the behavior of the bug very simple. All walking things use a 3 x 3 gait, where only three legs are moving at any given time. Each walking thing has a head that maintains direction and destination. A walking thing always walks towards its destination until reaching it, then resets. The walking thing uses a crude system of 'dragging along' its center of gravity. A limitation in the turn radius is also imposed. Currently, the walking things are completely unaware of each other. This might be an interesting place to start modifications.                     jtarbell, march 2003