ruleset

FaceMaker: making faces with artificial selection

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:04:22 +0000

FaceMaker: making faces with artificial selection:

“Each of your votes helps to slowly transform abstract shapes into human faces. This is evolution driven by artificial selection.”

via reddit.com

L-systems on an FPGA

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:26:00 +0000

L-systems on an FPGA:

“The advantage of using FPGAs is that the celerity and volume of calculations is greatly enhanced due to the application specific nature of the hardware, and the parallelism in calculation that occurs when allowed. This yields significant advantages for highly iterative, calculation intensive models that take significant calculation time for a serial processor, but happen almost instantly with an FPGA as a result of the specific parallelized structure of the design.”

Scientists extract images directly from brain

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:21:00 +0000

Scientists extract images directly from brain:

“Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.” - via Seed Magazine.

An End to Endless Forms

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:58:31 +0000

An End to Endless Forms:

“Researchers have put forward a simple model of development and gene regulation that is capable of explaining patterns observed in the distribution of morphologies and body plans.”

Photo

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:12:05 +0100

From Old Vials, New Hints on Origin of Life

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:08:00 +0100

From Old Vials, New Hints on Origin of Life:

A classic experiment exploring the origin of life has, more than a half-century later, yielded new results - via io9.

Synesthesia and Cross-Modality in Contemporary Audiovisuals

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:19:57 +0100

Synesthesia and Cross-Modality in Contemporary Audiovisuals:

“In the age of ubiquitous digital media, synesthesia is everywhere. In human, neurological form, it is rare: for perhaps three in a hundred people, a stimulus in one sensory modality automatically induces a sensation in another. Auditory-to-visual synesthesia, or “colored hearing” is much rarer still. Yet now this phenomenon is realised, apparently, inside every digital music player, on VJ screens in every club, in robot lightshows. On these screens sound is transformed into visual pattern and form instantly and automatically; an exotic perceptual phenomenon becomes a technically mediated commonplace.”

Dynamical Systems Create Mathematical Art

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:46:15 +0100

Dynamical Systems Create Mathematical Art:

“Dynamical systems are mathematical models in which each point’s movement over time is set by a fixed rule. While these systems have some practical uses, such as tracking wildlife migration patterns or measuring the flow of water through a pipe, they can also create stunningly beautiful images.” - via io9

Ant 'from Mars'

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:03:00 +0100

Ant 'from Mars':

“Found in Brazil, the ant has a pale body and no eyes. Its mouthparts stick out like sharp forceps and are longer than the rest of its head.”

“The fact that a single ant ‘rediscovered’ in the rainforests of Brazil can tell us so much about the evolution of the ants highlights how little we know about the diversity of life on the planet.” - via Boing Boing.

The Landscape of Possible Intelligences

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:04:00 +0100

The Landscape of Possible Intelligences:

“Whether (or when) AI is possible will ultimately depend on whether we are smart enough to make something smarter than ourselves. We assume that ants have not achieved this level. We also assume that as smart as chimpanzees are, chimps are not smart enough to make a mind smarter than a chimp, and so have not reached this threshold either. While some people assume humans can create a mind smarter than a human mind, humans may be at a level of intelligence that is below that threshold also. We simply don’t know where the threshold of bootstrapping intelligence is, nor where we are on this metric.”

Exploring the virtual ant colony

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:15:50 +0100

Exploring the virtual ant colony:

“Ground-penetrating radar has been used to nondestructively map an ant colony for the first time.

The results have been digitised and fed into an interactive visualisation system so that the colony can be explored virtually.”

A neuron under the microscope — by oroboros at flicker.

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 23:47:21 +0100

A neuron under the microscope — by oroboros at flicker.

Digital Planet podcast from ALIFE XI

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:29:16 +0100

Digital Planet podcast from ALIFE XI:

A nice 25 minute podcast from Alife XI, with interviews with Seth Bullock, Jason Noble and Richard Watson.

Stilts confirm ants count their paces

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:30:43 +0100

Stilts confirm ants count their paces:

“A bizarre experiment that involved putting ants on stilts has demonstrated that they count paces to measure distances.” - via Mathematics Under The Microscope.

Complex systems Java applets

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:47:07 +0100

Complex systems Java applets:

A small number of A-lifey simulation Jave applets.

(via reddit.com)

Swarms of robots join the army

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:18:00 +0100

Swarms of robots join the army:

“Small robots working in swarms have finally moved out of the laboratory and into the real world. That was the most significant feature of the Ministry of Defence’s Grand Challenge competition, held over the weekend. It’s an idea that is also being pursued by the US military.”

“The Grand Challenge demonstrated what swarms of small, low-cost units can already achieve. “The UK defence industry now has a new capability that can be taken to the front line,” says Crampton. “In just over five years, the swarms of robots in the British armed forces will outnumber the soldiers.”

Oh great…

“Magpies can recognize themselves in a mirror, confounding...

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:52:20 +0100

“Magpies can recognize themselves in a mirror, confounding the notion that self-awareness is the exclusive preserve of humans and a few higher mammals.” - New Scientist, via Slashdot.

Wild dolphins tail-walk on water

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:07:36 +0100

Wild dolphins tail-walk on water:

“This indicates that they do learn from each other, which is not a surprise really, but it does also seem that they exhibit elements of what in humans we would call ‘cultural’ behaviour”

“These are things that groups develop and are passed between individuals and that come to define those groups, such as language or dancing; and it would seem that among the Port River dolphins we may have an incipient tail-walking culture.”

Giant kites to tap power

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:27:13 +0100

Giant kites to tap power:

An article about kite-based power generation — it quotes Allister Furey from University of Sussex, although doesn’t mention at all how the computer models were created. (By evolving neural networks, if I remember right?)

Smart future for swarming robots [BBC]

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:27:03 +0100

Smart future for swarming robots [BBC]:

A little bit of news from the Alife XI conference, regarding swarm robotics.