This is a bit out there (not sure if I'm sending to the right list...)
but I'm working on AI. I'll explain some of my background theory below, but on
with the point.
I need a virtual environment - a self-consistent reality - that will
be host to intelligent creatures. The day I started working on AI (one year
ago, give or take a month) I knew I'd need an environment of some sort, and the
kind I was most attracted to was MUDs (or somesuch.)
My problem is that I've got no experience building or customizing MUDs,
and I was wondering if someone would be interested in building a world, roughly
to my specifications. It's not what's in the world that's important but what
it's made of. I need all information to be transmitted via a certain set of
sensory stimulus, which I will define, as well as a set of actions. (I am open
to suggestions, I just need to ensure it's self-consistent, and complex enough
to be challenging to the AI, but simple enough such that the AI's brain can
deal with it all.
One thing for certain is that free-form descriptions are irrelevant,
since they usually refer to things outside of the VR and are not
self-consistent.
Anyway, if anyone is interested, contact me directly (alternatively, if
the list in general would like to discuss it, I don't mind...) and we can talk
about specifics.
The theory is mostly explained in Steve Grand's (he worked on
"Creatures") book: "Creation: Life and How to Make It" - it's a wonderful book.
Anyway, in a nutshell, he says that life (and intelligence) needs a few things
to exist. It needs a body, a world, drives (he says that "survival" is the
fundamental drive, but I think it's something else), the ability to sense and
the ability to act. A MUD provides all of these. The idea is that intelligence
emerges from a certain configuration of information processing... and if you
read his book, I think you'll agree.
I intend to take a model similar to his and give it some more features,
with the hope that it will become not only intelligent but *conscious*. Yeah,
it's a tall order... but there's no harm in trying. At worst, we should end up
with a MUD version of "Creatures" - at best... well, that's too much to think
about.
Development will be reasonably open. I'll share sourcecode and ideas.
The big reason I want to do it in a MUD is human interaction. In a MUD human
players and automatons are peers with respect to the physical laws, and another
goal is linguistic ability - to communicate with the creatures on some level
(disclaimer: you may have to learn a new language - their language won't likely
be english... though it should be fairly simple.)
Any takers?
--
Steve
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