March 2008
16 posts
Evolving Virtual Creatures: The Definitive Guide →
“AI research ties into games and simulations in many ways, but one of the most fascinating is the evolution of artificial life. Here’s a compilation of the best videos and white papers about applying genetic algorithms to generating the morphology and behavior of virtual embodied creatures in 3D worlds.” - via Brain Hammer.
A big disembodied neural network →
Nice idea… “By mimicking the behavior of the brain down to the individual neuron, the researchers aim to create a modeling tool that can be used by neuroscientists to run experiments, test hypotheses, and analyze the effects of drugs more efficiently than they could using real brain tissue.” …but a bit optimistic. “By demonstrating that their simulation is...
Self-organising wireless networks →
An article about the RUNES project (Reconfigurable Ubiquitous Network Embedded Systems), which is investigating the creation of ad-hoc, self-organising wireless networks that can adapt to changing environments. sciencedaily.com via slashdot.org
Bird Brains Suggest How Vocal Learning Evolved →
“In all three groups of birds with vocal learning abilities — songbirds, parrots and hummingbirds — the brain structures for singing and learning to sing are embedded in areas controlling movement, the researchers discovered.” sciencedaily.com via digg.com
Symbrion: sugar-cube sized swarm robots →
“The motorised, sugar cube-sized robots are designed to communicate with one another, and will be able to assemble themselves into much larger machines to carry out specific tasks when required.” via guardian.co.uk
Paul Ehrlich talking about cultural evolution →
wired.com interview with Paul Ehrlich. “The issue of dealing with cultural evolution is gigantically complex, but everything we do these days involves it. We don’t have time to use natural selection to, say, change attitudes on global warming.”
"This Instrument Will Register Body Reactions of... →
If only Dr. Johnen had added a light display… he could have beaten Gordon Pask and his Musicolour by a good 40 years. (Modern Mechanix via rekkerd.org)
Humans Are Just Machines for Propagating Memes... →
Wired.com interview with Susan Blackmore. “Up until very recently in the world of memes, humans did all the varying and selecting. We had machines that copied — photocopiers, printing presses — but only very recently do we have artificial machines that also produce the variations, for example (software that) mixes up ideas and produces an essay or neural networks that produce...
'Ocean thermostat can save coral' →
“Researchers suggest that natural processes appear to be regulating sea surface temperatures in a region of the western Pacific Ocean.” An example of a Gaia Theory mechanism?
Babies See Pure Color, but Adults Peer Through... →
When infant eyes absorb a world of virgin visions, colors are processed purely, in a pre-linguistic parts of the brain. As adults, colors are processed in the brain’s language centers, refracted by the concepts we have for them. (via Wired.com)
