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The Tamagochi Singularity Made Real: Infinite Tamagochi Living On the Internet (hackaday.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the things-that-definitely-need-to-exist dept.

szczys writes: Everyone loves Tamagochi, the little electronic keychains spawned in the '90s that let you raise digital pets. Some time ago, XKCD made a quip about an internet-based matrix of thousands of these digital entities. That quip is now a reality thanks to elite hardware hacker Jeroen Domburg (aka Sprite_TM). In his recent talk called "The Tamagochi Singularity" at the Hackaday SuperConference he revealed that he had built an infinite network of virtual Tamagochi by implementing the original hardware as a virtual machine. This included developing AI to keep them happy, and developing a protocol to emulate their IR interactions. But he went even further, hacking an original keychain to use wirelessly as a console which can look in on any of the virtual Tamagochi living on his underground network. This full-stack process is unparalleled in just about every facet: complexity, speed of implementation, awesome factor, and will surely spark legions of other Tamagochi Matrices.

14 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. I regret to inform you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...that everyone does not love Tamagotchi.

    1. Re:I regret to inform you... by TWX · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yes, I am rather indifferent to them. I guess that comes from having had real pets. Now, the Tamagothi on the other hand, that was just cool. Reminds me of Elmyra from Tiny Tunes and that peculiar hair-tie that she wore...

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:I regret to inform you... by KitFox · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Everyone" is kind of like the "infinite" part, where "infinity" and 13 have the same value. Extrapolate from there.

      --

      @Whee

    3. Re:I regret to inform you... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

      Agreed. Too hard to grill them (plus they are metallic tasting), and I've yet to find a use for their pelts...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    4. Re:I regret to inform you... by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Everyone" is kind of like the "infinite" part, where "infinity" and 13 have the same value. Extrapolate from there.

      Well sure, but for very small values of "infinite" he could be correct.

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  2. Its going to be something like this... by Atticka · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Its going to be something like this that will bring along the the AI uprising, innocent infinite Tamagochi matrix develops a glitch and hello Robotic Tamagotchi uprising!

    I just know it!

    --
    No sig here...
  3. This is all well and good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    But how can we use Tamagotchi keychains to encourage more women and minorities to join STEM fields?

  4. Whoa! by BringMyShuttle · · Score: 4, Funny

    Please don't tell me there's another prophecy about another chosen one who will rise to bring balance to ( ) the force ( ) the matrix ( ) the tamamatrix (pick one)

    1. Re:Whoa! by zoefff · · Score: 2

      No, what happens usually is that the prophet was not particullarly good in math and calculated the wrong date. Let me quote you the original prophecy:
      "The system goes online August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug."

  5. Infinite* Tamagochi by KitFox · · Score: 2

    (*Using a smaller-than-normal value of infinity. Actual lack of end does not exist.)

    --

    @Whee

    1. Re:Infinite* Tamagochi by m.alessandrini · · Score: 2

      Yeah, from the article, he implemented 13 virtual tamagotchis. Really personal value for infinity.

    2. Re:Infinite* Tamagochi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I watched the presentation to determine how he generalized it to infinity. I was disappointed. No automatic deduplication tricks, no stochastic modeling, no lazy seeded generation+fast forward. Just infinity approximated by 13. Simulating an infinite number of them starting in pseudorandom states is an interesting and tractable problem (the communication makes it harder: if you want it to be interesting, you need to not have a disconnected communication graph because that would be lame), but not one addressed here.

      If you start them all synchronized, you could easily have an infinite list of them, and they talk to one neighbor then the other: the result would be all the ones in even indexed slots would be identical, and same for the odd slots (all are in one of 2 states). I believe this should generalize to n-dimensional grids in interesting ways.

  6. Re:Wow what a genius by zAPPzAPP · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Here, over here! I am Impressed by this.

    You know how it is soo difficult to find a good idea for your hobby programing project?

    This guy has ideas man. I am so envious. He knows how to waste time for good.

  7. Re:I know its hypocritical but... by Mr.+Shotgun · · Score: 2

    Until some fool created infinite tamagochi and drained the entire Universe of all energy.

    The Infinite Tamagochi fed and drained the old universe of all energy. But then the Infinite Tamagochi had to poop and thus the universe was created anew.

    I think you just created an idea for a new religion.

    --
    Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the (supposed) good of its victims may be the most oppressive