The Nature of Code is a 12-chapter, 67-video p5.js track on simulating natural systems in code

The Nature of Code (Daniel Shiffman / The Coding Train) is a video learning track of 12 chapters and 67 videos covering the programming strategies behind computer simulations of natural systems in p5.js, JavaScript, and Processing. The chapter arc, as listed on the track page, runs: welcome/introduction; Perlin noise; vectors; forces (gravity, wind, friction, drag, attraction); angles and harmonic motion; particle systems; autonomous agents and steering; physics libraries (Matter.js); cellular automata (Game of Life, Wolfram CA, Falling Sand); fractals and L-systems; genetic algorithms; and neural networks (perceptrons). It targets learners with p5.js basics who want to move from static sketching toward generative motion, emergent behaviour, and simulation. The track links to a free companion book at natureofcode.com, a GitHub syllabus/examples repo, and a Kadenze certificate course. The actual teaching lives in the linked YouTube videos, not on the index page itself.

Examples

A learner who knows p5.js basics uses the track’s chapter order to progress from Perlin-noise motion, to vector-based forces, to particle systems, to steering agents — each chapter building the primitives the next assumes.

Assessment

List the Nature of Code chapter topics in order from the track page. Then identify which two chapters you would study to build a flocking simulation, and explain why those are the prerequisites.