Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

One Man's Quest To Build True Artificial Life

Posted by Unknown on from the emacs-already-does-that dept.

Atriune writes "The creator of the renowned Creatures artificial life series is at it again. Fifteen years after the initial success of the Creatures Trilogy, Steve Grand continues his quest to go beyond simulation, and create real artificial life." It's hard to tell if the approach is realistic, but it is certainly novel. Perhaps this will succeed in the areas the Lisp hackers of the '80s failed.

13 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Bad link - here's the right one by Howard+Beale · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://mashable.com/2011/03/03/artificial-life-steve-grand/?asid=92c52ad2

  2. Kickstarter project by vadim_t · · Score: 2

    Steve Grand is funding the development on kickstarter.

    He's decided to ignore traditional publishers and do everything himself to make sure it comes out right. Probably a good idea too, Creatures isn't a very normal game, and having a publisher fund it would almost certainly mean they'd try to dumb it down.

  3. Re:/. News Network by zill · · Score: 3, Funny

    RTFA can lead to the following complications:
    DDoS attacks
    Time wastage
    Complaints about the article being mutli-paged

    The editors must have realized this and did us all a favor.

  4. Lisp Hackers? by makubesu · · Score: 4, Funny

    A beautiful language like Lisp is hardly one that you "hack" stuff together in. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go find a missing parenthesis.

  5. CPU time. by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

    Like many amateurs, I have dabbled in artificial life. It will take every cpu cycle you can give it, for as long as you can, and still want more.

    I evolved a retina. A very bad one. It was supposed to fill in a gap in an image (Think logo-removal for TV), but never worked well enough to be any use.

    1. Re:CPU time. by lul_wat · · Score: 2

      Some of us don't know to use brain, you insensitive clod.

      --
      Divide a cake by zero. Is it still a cake?
    2. Re:CPU time. by Greyfox · · Score: 2

      You probably didn't beat it enough. It's a common problem with beginners. By the time you get to your second or third artificial life form, you'll have no trouble hauling off and popping them in the mouth in the middle of a crowded grocery store.

      --

      I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    3. Re:CPU time. by EdIII · · Score: 3, Informative

      It bothers me intensely. I understand why they did it, as it was a response to piracy. In their minds your ability to store the content locally on your DVR and skip commercials *is* piracy. They wanted to make sure that no matter who watched it, that they were still getting some marketing and advertisement out of it.

      It's gone too far. Why would I watch an entire movie on SciFi, or wherever, to have an increasingly larger logo... in addition the name.... in addition to the next program afterwards.... and its time in central/eastern?

      I can't block it out. It's nice that you can, but it just pisses me off to no end. That is because I realize the bullshit. Specifically, that I am paying these executive fucktards a large salary with my $40 (average is usually a $100 for most people) so that I can be sold like a slave to advertisers. If that is not enough, they also feel the ludicrous need to keep reminding me of the name of their network and the next show that will be on. In fact, they've gone plaid. We all have DVR's now for the most part that with a press of a button will show us the programming for a channel for the next 3 hours.

      I left years ago when I realized this before the branding started to appear everywhere. Then came the moving overlays. Can your mind really adjust to that? It's no different than a person standing in front of your TV and obstructing your view of the action, or environment.

      It is the single biggest reason I stopped downloading TV. I can't stand the logos, but I can't possibly live with the moving overlays. It is just not worth it.

      I pay $40 a month now for TV because I am forced to do so. It comes with the community I live in. Out of curiosity I connected it up one night and spent a frustrating hour trying to watch TV. Everything had those stupid logos on it, which got a LOT worse then before, and when surfing I came across commercials over half the time. I remember when it used to be less than half second to switch a channel. I suspect the advertisers influenced the TV and Cable Box manufacturers to make it the 2-3 seconds it takes now to force you to watch it.

      I am actually interested in automating a capture on several lines at once to see the statistics on how many commercials are playing at the same time, the average length of a show, average length of non-commercial segment, etc.

      No. I can't ignore the crap they pull. They ruined TV for me now permanently. I read a lot more, I bitch on Slashdot slightly more, surf for porn a heck of lot more (although I doubt there is a correlation there), and I spend more time with other activities.

      When I hear a show is great I rent it or stream it on Netflix.

      I would love for someone to develop AI for this purpose. I imagine an augmented reality visor where it can act like a middle man with 100ms delay. Strip out ALL advertisements, and basically anything I find offensive or disgusting. In other words, change the rest of you bastards into mute versions of Jessica Alba walking around in a bikini :) If you really need to say something it can appear in a small box in the lower right like an instant messaging system. Perhaps with your own logo or avatar...

  6. Re:well... by sammyF70 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Another way to put it is that he is a dreamer with a goal. If you ever played any of the games of the Creatures series (especially Creatures3 and, astonishingly, Creatures Village, both available at GOG.com), you probably know that the norns felt quite real and sometimes behaved in bafflingly intelligent-looking ways. So, although I don't think he'll reach his ideological goal to 100%, I'm looking forward to see how Grandroid turns out.

    --
    "DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
  7. Research, really? by Lundse · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Q: What other artificial life/intelligence projects are you keeping tabs on? What should we be excited about?
    A: Oh, I’m the wrong person to ask. I try not to look. ...and then he goes on about not wanting to be "polluted" as an artist. While claiming this is not a game, but research.

    Research and science, that is uninterested in what is being done in the field... I have a hard time coming up with something that fits that bill except pseudo-science.

    --
    IAIFARSIJDPOOTV - I Am In Fact A Reality Star; I Just Don't Play One On TV
    1. Re:Research, really? by synaptic · · Score: 2

      There's NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) largely by Ken Stanley. There are extensions to that like HyperNEAT and Compositional Pattern Producing Networks (CPPNs).

      I am interested in other approaches too...

  8. Be Careful by wisebabo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There is an interesting short story by Greg Egan called "Crystal Nights" (no connection to the Nazi attack on the Jewish ghettos).

    Partial SPOILER ALERT.

    Basically someone (using a super-fast crystal based computer) tries to evolve, in software, lifeforms that will surpass humanity and solve our problems. What he doesn't realize is that evolution, to the individual (if not the species) means DEATH and the newly created godlings may not be happy with the sacrifices they have had to endure...

    Anyway, Greg Egan (an extremely thought provoking author and, I think, physicist) has written some books that will blow your mind. Second only to the late Stanislaw Lem, he is one of my favorite S.F. writers. Go buy some of his books! Recommended: Permutation City (also about artificial life), Quaranitine and Incandescence. I think he may have released Crystal Nights as a free download.

  9. Re:well... by VortexCortex · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Another way to put it is that he is a dreamer with a goal. If you ever played any of the games of the Creatures series (especially Creatures3 and, astonishingly, Creatures Village, both available at GOG.com), you probably know that the norns felt quite real and sometimes behaved in bafflingly intelligent-looking ways. So, although I don't think he'll reach his ideological goal to 100%, I'm looking forward to see how Grandroid turns out.

    Wlil Grandroid be written in ApeScript? I wish he'd pour his Grandroid ideas into the Noble Ape open source project.

    It features a number of autonomous simulation components including a landscape simulation, biological simulation, weather simulation, sentient creature (Noble Ape) simulation and a simple intelligent-agent scripting language (ApeScript).

    The Noble Apes see their surroundings, have memories (internalizations of the external world), remember their encounters (almost drowning results in a fear of water) which leads emotion simulation & even relationships, can crudely communicate and breed with each other, and even dream!

    If the Norns were "alive" in Creatures -- The apes are even more so, and a great deal closer to the goal of emergent sentience (esp. than to as yet nonexistent/unpublished Grandroid code).

    What the Noble Apes don't have is a detailed graphical representation of themselves based on their genetics... I hoped that perhaps SPORE would help with this, but it was closed source.

    The biggest failing of software (esp. some AI/AL simulations) is the desire to attempt to realize an idea or concept instead of truly collaborating with like-minded individuals and utilizing their works / ideas to realize a greater solution.

    What I find interesting is machine learning through evolution -- Start with a VM filled with random noise & a few inputs. Devise a goal & selectively "breed" the instances that are closer to reaching the goals.

    IMHO, Yeah, he's quite full of himself... so much so that he'll start a new project.
    Meh, I'll bet it will be a fun game, regardless.