Fluid Dynamics –
I found this originally with the first looking outwards assignment, as cited by Memo Akten in his fluid simulation. The organic movement of fluid is something that I think would be a huge challenge to recreate digitally and always with beautiful results.
Procedural Terrain Generation –
Procedural terrain generation usually uses Perlin noise to create a 2D terrain with varied height, where the noise controls the y-value of the horizon line as it is generated. The midpoint displacement algorithm is also sometimes used, and involves splitting the horizon line into halves and offsetting the ‘halfway’ points by raising them or dropping them by a random height. According to this paper, a major problem with procedural generation is the creation of overhangs or caves. While some games like minecraft appear to have overcome this obstacle, it has not been overcome in a general sense.
Equilibrioception –
Equilibrioception is the sense of balance that almost all organisms possess. I couldn’t find any scientific papers on mimicking the phenomenon in artificial life outside of robotics. Maybe that’s because it’s trivial in cyberspace but I think it would be interesting to have AI with a non-trivial sense of balance. Regardless, here’s a link to my favorite robotics video of all time.