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Most impressive demo I saw at MIT AI Lab when a student there was Tom Ray's Tierra, basically this idea, 30 years ago. https://tomray.me/tierra/ https://tomray

Most impressive demo I saw at MIT AI Lab when a student there was Tom Ray's Tierra, basically this idea, 30 years ago. https://tomray.me/tierra/ https://tomray.me/tierra/

EvanAnderson 2y ago
Tierra was the first thing that came to my mind, too. I'd already played with "Core War" [0] when I learned about Tierra. I so badly wanted to implement something like Tierra myself. I couldn't wrap my head around how I could identify the metes and bounds of a given "organism" to isolate it from the rest of the "soup". At the time I learned about Tierra I didn't have a way to get at any of Ray's papers or code. Now I do, but I'd kinda forgotten about it. I really should revisit it. There's probably a lot of fun to be had there. Aside: Steven Levy's "Artificial Life"[1] was where I learned about Tierra. That book, along with Levy's "Hackers"[2], and Gleick's "Chaos"[3] were formative books for young me. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_War [1] https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Life-Frontier-Computers-Biology/dp/0679743898 https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Life-Frontier-Computers-Bi... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-Levy/dp/1449388396 https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-Le... [3] https://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Making-Science-James-Gleick/dp/0143113453 https://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Making-Science-James-Gleick/dp/...
chx 2y ago
yes yes more people should know about Tierra, it's mind blowing.
kmoser 2y ago
If you go back over 50 years, to 1971, you get Creeper and Reaper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeper_and_Reaper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeper_and_Reaper
breck 2y ago
I can't believe this is the first time I'm seeing this video. Genius. Thanks! https://tomray.me/Video/Tierra.html https://tomray.me/Video/Tierra.html

Most impressive demo I saw at MIT AI Lab when a student there was Tom Ray's Tierra, basically this idea, 30 years ago. https://tomray.me/tierra/ https://tomray.me/tierra/

EvanAnderson 2y ago

Tierra was the first thing that came to my mind, too. I'd already played with "Core War" [0] when I learned about Tierra. I so badly wanted to implement something like Tierra myself. I couldn't wrap my head around how I could identify the metes and bounds of a given "organism" to isolate it from the rest of the "soup". At the time I learned about Tierra I didn't have a way to get at any of Ray's papers or code. Now I do, but I'd kinda forgotten about it. I really should revisit it. There's probably a lot of fun to be had there. Aside: Steven Levy's "Artificial Life"[1] was where I learned about Tierra. That book, along with Levy's "Hackers"[2], and Gleick's "Chaos"[3] were formative books for young me. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_War [1] https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Life-Frontier-Computers-Biology/dp/0679743898 https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Life-Frontier-Computers-Bi... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-Levy/dp/1449388396 https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Steven-Le... [3] https://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Making-Science-James-Gleick/dp/0143113453 https://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Making-Science-James-Gleick/dp/...

chx 2y ago

yes yes more people should know about Tierra, it's mind blowing.

kmoser 2y ago

If you go back over 50 years, to 1971, you get Creeper and Reaper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeper_and_Reaper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeper_and_Reaper

breck 2y ago

I can't believe this is the first time I'm seeing this video. Genius. Thanks! https://tomray.me/Video/Tierra.html https://tomray.me/Video/Tierra.html