In 1986 Nintendo released a game called The Legend of Zelda. It remained on the top-10 list for the next five years.
So why do I mention this totally irrelevant game on this list? Well, I'ts become apparent that I am well suited for a niche on list-ecology that is responsible for throwing up a semi-crazy idea and provoking useful discussion. This aims to be such a posting. The basic problem of a baby AI mind is that you want to give it some interactive environment that is heavy on feedback but doesn't require it to understand abstract relationships right off the bat. A game such as Dragon Warrior would not be good at all because it relies heavily on textual clues. A game such as the legend of Zelda, however, is excelent because you hardly have to be literate at all to begin to play it. There may be a game that better-maches this criterian but lets stick to this one. The game's ROM was only 160k and the NES is easily emulated on a PC. As there are open-source interpriters available, it should be feasable to adapt it to serve an AI's needs. One would need to hack the rom a bit to lay down traps for certain events such as bumping into something but that shouldn't be to terrably hard. The idea is to then take all the IO+hacks, and then map them onto your AI's simulated spinal chord. If Link bumps into something, the event is trapped and sent to the AI's mind and thus it learns... (It would also corelate this experience with the audio and visual feedback). The output would be the directional buttons, A, B, [select] and [start]. This approach is rather limiting as it doesn't give the AI any real-world capabilities but it would serve quite well for demonstration purposes. The AI would need to demonstrate basic planning skills (ie: you should restore your health and pick up some potions before attempting a big level), as well as navigation using the map systems. My godforsaken develment machine (if it ever works) should be well suited to this type of experament. Currently I am planning an AI based on an architecture that I call "mind-2". It is an attempt at a high-level brain emulation. It will not use neurons but rather vectors and registers to achieve functional equivalence to the apparent CAM organization of the brain. This Mind-2 architecture is not a strong AI but it should be no less general than the human brain. I've shifted my focus to it because it doesn't require nearly as deep an understanding of the function of the brain as would a strong AI. The mere fact that we have no AI at present makes it a useful project. A mind-2 architecture for Link can be greatly simplified next to the complexity required for dealing with the real world. The organization of this can be a small fraction of the size of a real-world intelligence. -- pain (n): see Linux. http://users.rcn.com/alangrimes/ ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?[EMAIL PROTECTED]
