Summary of recent article:

In the 1980s, the artists and computer scientists who worked on computer graphics became interested in what they called the “simulation of natural phenomena.” They wanted to model the behavior of natural systems to get more realistic images, like using a model of tree growth to make better tree. This article was born when I noticed how common it was that science fictional representations of whole planets “coming to life” were treated as simulations of natural phenomena. I trace the history of computer-generated imagery in the science fiction films Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and 2010: The Year We Make Contact, as well as illustrations by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, to show how science fiction stories about planets being “grown” influenced scholarly conversations about the simulation of nature in this period. These planetary “genesis effects” incorporated a kernel of science fictional thinking into the core of how simulations are used to create knowledge to this day.