L-systems generate weevils, pizza toppings, and matriarchal lineages

L-systems generate weevils, pizza toppings, and matriarchal lineages

Starting from the Fibonacci L-system — where b becomes a and a becomes ab — the author generates escalating strings that spell out weevil genus names like Zyzzyva, pizza toppings from pepperoni, and matriarchal family lines. A playful demonstration of how a simple substitution rule produces surprising, recognizable patterns, with a brief detour into why one substitution had to be skipped to keep the results pronounceable.

I tried to get Claude to help me with this article, but it said the premise was too stupid so I had to do it myself.

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2026-10-04