h a l f b a k e r ySugar and spice and unfettered insensibility.
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Have a bunch of -- (why not) self replicating -- 3D printers
print out an exponentially increasing number of sets of
random shapes and then do an exponentially increasing
number of automated experiments with the shapes to see
if they do anything unexpected when forced to interact
with eachother
in a controlled environment and shaken.
So you could begin by having one 3D printer print out a
bunch of cubes and put them in a cubical container and
shake it around at varying speeds to see if the collective
behavior of the modules added up to anything -- which it
wouldn't -- but you would be looking for meta behavior to
emerge from the experiment - all automated. And then
start tweaking from there.
House of Stairs
http://en.wikipedia...am_Sleator_novel%29
For [rcarty].
My class studied it at high school (many years ago). [neutrinos_shadow, Sep 12 2013]
Random Acts of Kindness
http://www.hackcana...moose/kindness2.jpg
(Space Moose is rarely SFW) [ytk, Sep 13 2013]
[link]
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Eventually you might just end up producing gray goo… |
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It's just another twist on chimps with typewriters. |
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I like the concept but not this particular iteration. The
ideal random thing generator would be a junk yard full of
all modern technological refuse, and populated by deaf
and mute feral children raised from aborted fetuses in
artificial wombs. The deafness and muteness would be
surgically imposed by choice institutionalized mental
patients who are convinced they are in the hospital
because they are doctors. The feral children are
prevented from socializing by constant surveillance and
the realease of toothless declawed attack dogs that
prevent them from doing anything but assembly. The
childrens new creations are submitted to a retractile
claw suspended from a high crane that lowers once
something has been completed. The claw also removes
poor performers. |
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That doesn't strike me as especially random, [rcarty]. |
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//twist on chimps with typewriters. // |
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At least it is doable. Where would you get chimps that can type? Temp agency's? |
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And you could sell 25 random shapes in a plastic bag. |
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Like tinker toys for tinkerers and thinkers. |
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Ytk, are you operating the claw today? |
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[rcarty], your (somewhat disturbing) description reminds me of the novel "House of Stairs", with maybe some "Cube" thrown in for good measure. |
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House of Stairs I'll look for at the library, but school will
likely cut into my pleasure reading. Is 'Cube' the
Canadian made movie about the people entrapped in a
huge cube made out of cubes with each cube being
uniquely deadly? |
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As to the idea 'random thing generator', the problem I
see is that things are not really produced perfectly
randomly. If they were, space would be full of much
more interesting things than just rocks. The exercise of
randomly joining shapes together as the idea proposes
wouldn't result in any particular sort of thing at all
except abstract art. My suggestion of using feral
children in a junk yard was so that things could be
assembled with as little insight into the outcome as
possible - a randomness. |
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The last paragraph sounds like you could get a broken Rubic's cube. |
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Hmm, looking at some of the output from the Random Thing Generator, and I quote "Before travelling, remove all the hydrogen atoms from the cotton in your luggage, saving 50% of the bulk and weight, simply replace it at your destination"... I think it needs some tweaking as just removing the hydrogen atoms will just make it heavier, as every fule nos. |
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Suddenly wondering if this is anything like the Random
Acts of Kindness Generator (link). |
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This could work wonders for our foreign policy. |
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I am imagining an animated short. The machines, all similar but none the same. They churn away with their shapes and their shaking. Each works at it for 10 seconds, then the shapes disappear and they start anew. There are thousands of these machines, in rows stretching over the horizon. Some big ones can be seen in distant rows. |
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A monkish looking robot walks the rows, looking over what the machines are doing. Others like him can be seen in other rows. He watches the shapes appear and move and disappear. He nods benignly. |
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In one bin the shapes coalesce in a column. Green arms and a torso emerge. It is a plant, or a cat, or a woman, or a fire. Her eyes open and she looks wonderingly around, then up at the monk. |
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And she disappears. New shapes appear in the machine and begin to move. The monk smiles and takes a piece of chalk from his cowl. He makes a tally mark on the side of the machine. There are three marks already there. |
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