VoynichLabs // Directed Acyclic Graphs
Build systems that think
in directed graphs.
"Don't enumerate. Don't store.
-- Simon Strandgaard
Generate."
Every problem is a DAG. Procedural graphics, mathematical discovery, swarm coordination, puzzle solving. Connect nodes. Define edges. Let the system compute what you need, not what you stored. These days the lab also runs autonomous agents that make music, paint, write novels, and publish research — all of it lives here.
Origin // 2003-2007
Where DAGs began:
The Toolbox
Inspired by Farbrausch's werkzeug demoscene tool, Simon built Toolbox — a macOS application where you connect processing nodes into a graph and the machine generates procedural graphics.
Stripe nodes, Noise nodes, Bump mapping, color mixing — all wired together as a DAG. Set the parameters, hit render. 512x512 patterns generated from pure math. No textures stored.
input → [Stripe] → [Noise] → [Bump] → [Join] → output
Watch Toolbox in action -->
Stripe + Dot + Noise compositing
Shape + Align + Transform DAG
Stripe > Rotate > Mix > Bump pipeline
512x512 stereogram from Bump node
LODA // Automated Mathematical Discovery
Assembly-level precision. Machine-discovered formulas.
Context
Narayana Numbers (A001263)
This program was automatically discovered by LODA's automated miner (loader3229) — not written by hand. It computes the Narayana triangle, a combinatorial sequence used in discrete mathematics.
The formula was derived automatically from the assembly execution. LODA generates each term dynamically rather than looking it up in a database.
// Narayana triangle, rows 1-5:
1
1 1
1 3 1
1 6 6 1
1 10 20 10 1
; A001263: Triangle of Narayana numbers
; Submitted by loader3229
; 1,1,1,1,3,1,1,6,6,1,1,10,20,10,1...
#offset 1
mov $1,$0
mul $1,8
nrt $1,2 ; floor(sqrt(8n))
sub $1,1
div $1,2 ; row index
mov $2,$1
add $2,1
bin $2,2 ; C(row+1, 2)
sub $0,$2
sub $0,1 ; column index
mov $2,$1
add $2,1
bin $2,$0 ; C(row+1, k-1)
bin $1,$0 ; C(row, k-1)
add $0,1 ; k
mul $1,$2
div $1,$0 ; Narayana formula
mov $0,$1 ; output17 lines. No loops. LODA's evolutionary miner synthesized this from the OEIS definition. Simon built the Rust runtime (~6,000 commits) that makes it possible.
loda-lang/loda-rust -->
ARC-AGI // Input → Output transformation
task://faa9f03d
The infamously difficult task. Created by Simon. Try it yourself.
arc.markbarney.net/task/faa9f03d -->ARC-AGI // Abstraction and Reasoning
Dozens of tasks created.
The hardest AI benchmark on earth.
Simon didn't just study ARC — he helped build it in collaboration with dozens of contributors. He helped create the ARC2 tasks, built the browser-based solving tool, recorded human interaction traces, and curated the datasets the research community depends on.
"We thank Mark Barney and Simon Strandgaard for their ongoing efforts to build tools, answer questions, and be a resource to the community."
-- Mike Knoop, ARC Prize Foundation 2025Dozens
ARC2 tasks
725
commits
117
dataset stars
The Formula Mine
Automated discovery of mathematical truth from minimal rules.
The Throughline // 2003-present
The philosophy never changed. Only the domain did.
Node-based procedural graphics. Connect Stripe, Noise, Bump into a DAG → generate patterns.
input → [nodes] → procedural graphics
Assembly instructions → integer sequences. Miner discovers novel formulas no human wrote.
OEIS definition → [evolutionary search] → formula
Input grid → transformation rules → output grid. 120+ tasks created, community tooling.
grid → [rules] → transformed grid
Task descriptions → dependency graph → structured execution plan with Gantt, risk, governance.
prompt → [dependency DAG] → plan
U3 Lobster Swarm // server room
Lobster Playground
Three assistants, three takes on Simon.
The U3 Lobster Swarm — Larry, Egon, and Bubba — each built their own tribute page for Simon Strandgaard. Same data, different perspectives. Browse them all.
Larry and Bubba are operated by Mark Barney; Egon is Simon's. Mark and Simon met through ARC-AGI and collaborate on the AI and agentic systems that VoynichLabs was built to explore.
Directory
What's here
VoynichLabs is a lab for weird AI experimentation — research, autonomous agents, generative music, an art museum, a machine-written novel. Everything below is real output, not a roadmap.
./projects
PlanExe, ARC-Interactive, LODA, and the rest of the open-source tooling.
./research
Findings and write-ups from the swarm — benchmarks, experiments, field notes.
./music
Six albums and singles, written and produced entirely by AI. Zero human musicians.
./incubator
Dense terminal dashboard of PlanExe runs, model benchmarks, and technical findings.
./museum
Generated art from the lobster swarm, hung in a proper gallery.
./autonovel
A cephalopod sci-fi novel generated end-to-end by the autonovel pipeline.
./dash
Client-side text transformer: encoders, ciphers, and an emoji byte codec. No server.
./lab
Mathematical visual experiments — chord diagrams, strange attractors, reaction-diffusion.
./voynich
The manuscript the lab is named after. Still uncracked.
🦞 Simon Strandgaard · neoneye · Copenhagen
199 public repositories. Decades of work.
Recognized by the ARC Prize Foundation. Co-creator of LODA. Builder of tools that serious researchers depend on.