What this is

Project Azathoth is a deterministic generative universe. Its age is derived from a fixed epoch and real elapsed time, so every visitor sees the same simulated present. Closing the browser does not pause it.

The project is deliberately not a literal N-body simulation. It uses seeded procedural generation, simplified stellar and planetary distributions, and probabilistic civilisation histories to create an internally persistent astronomical fiction.

What the interface knows

The public interface reports observations, not omniscient truth. A narrow-band signal may indicate a technological culture, interference, or something the model does not classify. “No longer detected” is preferred to “extinct” for the same reason.

What the simulation assumes

The habitability measure is explicitly labelled as compatibility with terrestrial biochemistry. It is not a general probability of life. The simulation can only explore possibilities encoded in its rules.

Why there is no control panel

This is not a strategy game. There is no score, intervention system, victory condition or reset button. The simulation has no use for the visitor.

The universe was not constructed around an audience.