Ep 241: How and why the dorg are doomed

Ep 241: How and why the dorg are doomed

How and why the dorg are doomed It seems like such a simple and obvious thing. Given that we can cause computer programs and the like to evolve and evolution is what gave us our intelligence, couldn’t we give a computer intelligence by letting it evolve? The experiment has been done, in project after project, …

Read More Read More

Ep 240: Of mice and men and minds

Ep 240: Of mice and men and minds

Of mice and men and minds We’ve been looking and different unusually clever creatures—ants, bees, crows, octopus, elephants, whales, sea otters, dogs, racoons and monkeys. Along the way I was hoping to figure out some general idea of how intelligence arises from the chaos that is our universe. I share what I’ve come up with …

Read More Read More

A quirk of computer numbers and simple arithmetic defeats my digital creatures

A quirk of computer numbers and simple arithmetic defeats my digital creatures

Artificial life systems have a reputation for finding all sorts of obscure bugs in your code, no matter how rare or unlikely the conditions to cause the bug are. I’ve got an oddball one. It causes a run time error and shuts down the entire system, and it is an extraordinarily unlikely event, happening once …

Read More Read More

Ep 239: Monkey brain business

Ep 239: Monkey brain business

Monkey brain business Primates, from the littlest monkeys to the largest apes, have rather large brains for their size. They also have high neural density, meaning that they pack a large number of neurons into whatever size brain they have. With culture, tool use, and even the beginnings of language, we take a bit of …

Read More Read More

Introducing the dorg, we’ll never be assimilated!

Introducing the dorg, we’ll never be assimilated!

Let’s use artificial life to evolve intelligence. Because AI is hard; evolution is easy. I’m not the first one to think of this idea. Quite a few people have taken a stab at it. It’s not even the first time I’ve implemented something to play with the notion—nymphs, grubs, figures… It’s very important that whatever …

Read More Read More

Ep 238: That’s a good dog

Ep 238: That’s a good dog

That’s a good dog Alright, I agree, some dogs are smarter than others. Some dogs are downright dumb—but we still love them. Still, depending on the dog, they can show language and memory abilities as good as those shown by two year old human children. And yet, there’s nothing special about the dog brain. It …

Read More Read More

Ep 237: Raccoons, brains, hands, and clever disguise

Ep 237: Raccoons, brains, hands, and clever disguise

Raccoons, brains, hands, and clever disguise Raccoons have surprisingly crowded little heads. With as many neurons as a similar sized monkey, these furry little bandits have nimble hands, and a knack for cheating on intelligence tests.

Ep 236: Brains on the wing

Ep 236: Brains on the wing

Brains on the wing If you compare brain size to body size, some animals have much more brain per pound than others. That includes the primates, who climb and swing through the trees. It also includes parrots and ravens and crows, who fly through the trees. Join us as we talk about some surprisingly sophisticated …

Read More Read More