Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:43 — 3.7MB) | Embed
Genetic Programming Today we take a look at my favorite evolutionary approach to making computers solve problems. This one has, now and again, produced results that are competitive with what humans can do. Here’s a link to a page about Genetic Programming, including some of the human competitive results. genetic-programming.org Here are a few tutorials …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:41 — 3.5MB) | Embed
The genetic algorithm Your DNA has most of the information needed to make you you. The information is encoded through four different chemicals that act as a sort of alphabet, spelling out the language of life. In the 1960/s a similar approach was adopted to solve complex problems. Here’s a tutorial on genetic algorithms and …
Next post in topic A “steampunk computer,” is apparently a style of home or work station. I kind of want one, but… When I think “steampunk” I think actual steam. Or tech on that level, hugely complex, and able to magickly work somehow, instead of falling apart, seizing up and exploding. I think I can …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:28 — 4.3MB) | Embed
Evolution strategies In 1963, a couple of students were working in a wind-tunnel, attempting to find a way to figure out how to design surfaces to produce a given airflow. That was, and still is, a difficult problem. There are no simple formula. They decided to see if they could use the power of evolution …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:51 — 3.2MB) | Embed
How to make a mind—part4 It took our universe between 13 and 14 billion years to make minds like our own. It took our planet 4.54 billion years, and life between 3 and 4 billion. What if we took a process we know can produce minds, namely evolution, and simulated it. Maybe, if we could …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:19 — 3.3MB) | Embed
No species alone Large complex multicellular life and simple single celled creatures have been evolving together. Each species requires an environment similar to the one in which it evolved in order to grow and develop normally. That includes the other creatures that have been evolving along with it. Today, we talk about how mice, deprived …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:11 — 5.1MB) | Embed
The things you make me do It’s strange but true. A microscopic single celled organism can change the behavior of animals that it infects. From a snail that climbs instead of hiding below, to rabies, to a disease that causes rodents to lose their fear of cats; behavior can be changed by a sickness to …
Previous post in topic Next post in topic In the previous post, I talked very briefly about a one instruction set computer. I didn’t go into details because I hadn’t had a chance to play with one yet. Well, I’ve played with it, and it isn’t as difficult as I was making it. The one …
Next post in topic We’re fast approaching topics like evolutionary computation and artificial neural networks on the show. Unless something crops up that is just too interesting not to make an episode over, we should get started with that by episode 89. It has been a long time since I last considered these topics, and …
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:31 — 4.6MB) | Embed
Just not complete without you Symbiosis between animals and bacteria is very common. In some cases, animals will not develop fully without their microscopic partners—sometimes, they can’t even reproduce. Here’s a paper on the bobtail squid, and the light producing organ that doesn’t develop fully without the correct strain of bioluminescent bacteria. Bacterial symbionts induce …