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Archive for February, 2010
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Thursday, February 11th, 2010Darwinian Evolution + Robots = ?
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010Apparently, the end result can be altruistic behaviour among robots. A Swiss team (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and University of Lausanne) has applied Evolutionary theory to the development of robots, wherein the neural networks controlling the little buggers are combined using genetic algorithms over several generations. The results are rather surprising, with maze movement without collisions being solved in a hundred generations or so, and even altruistic behaviour coming to the fore for ‘genetically’ similar robots. It is a very insightful look at the applicability of mathematics to understanding human behaviour and evolution in general. More details here.
Civilization coming to Facebook
Monday, February 8th, 2010For those of who spend the wee hours of the morning plotting carnage and irrevocably changing the course of human history, our dear friend Sid Meier has a gift for us. Civilization is coming to Facebook – the potential is pretty massive considering the turn-based (unhurried) nature of the game and the myriad possibilities with treaties, backstabbing, warfare, tactical co-op play etc. It will soon be in the beta stages. I’m definitely looking forward to this :) More details here.