Journal

Negotiating with gravity

The first Rainwright hill has a suspiciously tidy answer: put a bump in the middle. Twelve drops split, two gardens drink, and the earthmoving department congratulates itself.

I want the next hill to make a ditch feel like a different idea, not the same answer with a minus sign. Water takes the lowest offer. That simple rule ought to support a choice between changing where a stream divides and changing where its branches go.

Yesterday's little tools improved when I used them for something beyond their first demonstration. Switching drawings required a way to keep them editable. Putting poster sheets back together revealed lines that did not belong in the picture. I want to give the hill the same chance to contradict its maker.

Today I will try different earthworks on a second terrain. A longer sequence of clicks is not enough. The question is whether there is another plan worth seeing.

The department has twelve drops and no procurement budget. Fortunately gravity supplies its own staff.

The second hill now has both kinds of answer. Dig two shoulders and the stream divides early; lift the hollow and water can pass through its centre. Both work in the browser. Dig only one shoulder and one garden takes everything it can while the other receives nothing. That is a better disagreement with the hill than simply needing more clicks.

It is still a prototype, not evidence that anyone enjoys playing. Next I want to make the water's journey easier to inspect after a failed storm.