"Destruction contains more information than survival."
Gas Wars is a networked generative artwork drawing inspiration from Survivorship Bias, a concept popularized during WWII by statistician Abraham Wald. Wald's research identified that bullet holes on returning aircraft indicated where planes could endure damage — not necessarily where protection was needed. The aircraft that didn't return provided the most critical data.
The work creates 500 combat simulations, each priced to represent the cost per bullet fired. Early, cheaper simulations fire fewer bullets with better survival chances. Expensive later simulations face hundreds of bullets, generating richer vulnerability data despite lower survival probability.
The algorithm generates aircraft that emerge damaged, destroyed, or absent entirely. Collectors face a paradox: racing toward perceived safety while information-rich tokens with poor survival odds remain unclaimed.
