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Show HN: Time Flies

by vnglst on 9/21/24, 1:46 PM with 47 comments

A visualization of the passage of time using flies. Written in JavaScript with some HTML & CSS in one index.html.
  • by chasil on 9/23/24, 12:38 PM

    The term "Tempus Fugis" is Latin for time flies, and is commonly seen on clock faces.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempus_fugit

  • by gwern on 9/24/24, 1:18 AM

    Reminds me of the falling-blocks one, where IIRC he made the blocks 'spontaneously' create the necessary time by starting with them in the right order and then simply displaying it in reverse, due to the temporal reversibility of physics. So it simply looked 100% correct as somehow the blocks magically all bounced exactly right so as to turn into the time. If you did it 'forward', you'd be baffled, but it becomes trivial if you think like a Heptapod. :)

    One could probably do the same trick here: start with the flies in the clock shape, then diffuse them, then display it in reverse. And stitch together each sequence by a bit of biased sampling to move each fly to its nearest counterpart in the next sequence? Then the flies magically assemble themselves into the time without ever moving unnaturally. "How do they know how to coordinate?! I just don't understand!" (Also a good analogy to AI diffusion models...?)

  • by keyle on 9/23/24, 2:23 AM

    Very nice, simple and elegant. Would make a nice screensaver with a bit more movement.
  • by Gazoche on 9/23/24, 12:28 PM

    This is the kind of idea that definitely started with the pun and then was worked backwards from there. Pretty funny.

    Tip: you can click on the canvas to "disturb" the flies

  • by tomcam on 9/22/24, 3:14 PM

    Hilarious. Really wish I’d thought of this. Nicely executed.
  • by fermentation on 9/23/24, 6:55 PM

    Fun visualization.

    First thought that this would be https://timeflies.buzz/ a fun game I played at pax this year, though I'm a little worried I played the whole thing.

  • by maxperience on 9/23/24, 9:21 PM

    Another nice stoic-inspired visualisation of a life clock:

    https://lifeslay.vercel.app/

  • by anordin95 on 9/25/24, 7:57 PM

    This is wonderful! I'd love something similar to this in my computer's time-display: random-noise until I click.
  • by gyre007 on 9/23/24, 2:17 PM

    I love this! I wouldn't be surprised if this is the result of the author getting nerd-sniped somehow :-)
  • by 3yanlis1bos on 9/23/24, 10:28 PM

    Nice.

    <Spoiler> I would expect the phone shake to cause the flies to dispatch tho. <Spoiler/>

  • by jv22222 on 9/24/24, 5:07 AM

    Something that would work well in the Harry Potter universe! Great work.
  • by josefrichter on 9/23/24, 11:15 AM

    Initially I thought it's one of those optical illusions where you start seeing something in seemingly random buzz, just dynamically generated.
  • by garyrob on 9/23/24, 7:12 PM

    But do they like an arrow?
  • by koliber on 9/23/24, 6:16 AM

    Imagine lit-up drones doing a countdown like this before New Year’s Eve!
  • by ochrist on 9/23/24, 1:30 PM

    Time Flies is something I would expect in Doctor Who.
  • by Yawrehto on 9/23/24, 12:46 PM

    That's super cool!
  • by kaan_keskin on 9/23/24, 11:55 AM

    Now, I should port this to my smartwatch. Great.
  • by Rush2112 on 9/21/24, 2:11 PM

    This app reminds me of the marx brothers quote, “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.”
  • by singularity2001 on 9/23/24, 11:58 AM

    Could be a good test for future GPT intelligence but probably not hard