Re: virus: Definition of meme (from alt.memetics)

David McFadzean (david@lucifer.com)
Fri, 3 Jan 1997 00:29:35 -0700


> From: Alex Williams <thantos@decatl.alf.dec.com>
> Date: Thursday, January 02, 1997 9:29 PM

> Just ignore me, I'm undergoing a brainstorm of sorts; I had a flash at
> work about writing a game based around players writing the sensor and
> subsumptive/spreading activation network code to control a robot tank
> on realistic terrain, today. It'd make use of pre-coded sensory
> modules in a simulated environment and, basically, be the ultimate
> geek toy.

Do you see the players writing the code by modifying connection strengths
in a relatively static network architecture and/or connecting premade
subnetworks?

Do the players collaborate on one robot tank or compete against each
other, one player per tank?

Have you seen a game called crobots?

[snip]

> Interestingly, this means that spreading activation architectures can
> work toward /conflicting Goals in the same network/, sometimes with
> the same competency modules. All this without explicitly defining
> confliction but simply defining required states and changed states of
> the organism/entity. Could this be a situation that helps us
> understand the idea of `meme' in a better or more complete light? It
> does hint that memes needn't have other memes that refer to their
> interaction in order to have it rectified; that rectification can
> occur as a direct result of simpler rules.

I'm not sure why you call these memes. It sounds more like you are
referring to agents as described in Minsky's Society of Mind, or
Rodney Brook's papers on subsumption architecture.

--
David McFadzean                 david@lucifer.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
Church of Virus                 http://www.lucifer.com/virus/