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[BloodBeard]

I know a lot of this is just mumbo jumbo to most people and not really discussion material but I find it helps me think to talk about what i'm doing so i'll still update my progress.

Logic designing for word recognition and what is basically the AIs 'mouth' is pretty much completely worked out. Now that all this big important stuff that needs to be perfectly logical is out of the way I can start adding a little personality. The user display, AI display and word rec can act independently or as a unit so i'm offered multiple options to reset them all to accept new input. When the user is done typing a line of text it could be cleared by the user hitting enter, by the AI after it types its own message (leaning towards this) or by the user after the AI types its message. The same goes for the AIs' display.

The level of control the AI can have over input and output is almost absolute. While I want the AI to "think" of a response when the user inputs a message, i'd also like it to be able to take action on its own without being prompted by the user. This would mean that i'll need mechanical things to always be happening and be controled by timers, delays and repeaters, but because of the control it has it could under certain circumstances "interrupt" the user, turn off your keyboard and delete what you were typing so it can say something. I think that would be neat.

I have to make a working AI first of course, but should I fail in that and the only option I have left is preprogramed input with preprogramed responses you'll be glad to know that a single pressure plate cell like what's built already is all that would be needed per inquiry and response. Theoretically, thousands of preprogramed responses is possible with the space I have and building/linking them would be pretty easy. There could even be multiple responses to inquiries based on how you answered a previous question or something you said earlier.

[Name Lips]

This is fascinating to me because it reminds me of when I tried to program a Zork-style text adventure game.

I had the advantage of using an actual programming language, with built-in functions for dealing with text strings, input/output, and so forth.

I got it so that it could split apart a sentence into individual words, and compare these words to a list of words it had stored. It could then deduce if these were nouns, verbs, and so forth.

I think I finally started having trouble with more advanced grammar.

But you... you're trying to do it purely with logic circuits. No programming language, no hash tables, no easy input/output... every time you make a mistake, it involves rewiring the thing on the physical level. As opposed to a programming language, when you can just delete a few lines and retype your mistakes.

It's astonishing and an amazing achievement that you've managed to get the display working. I'm not sure you realize how amazing that is. Just being able to display different characters when you pull different levers is remarkable.

The main advantage DF seems to have in the computing department is that you can connect any lever to any number of gears without building physical connections between the two. You have wireless technology in your fort! Just imagine for a while what it would be like if you had to physically connect each of your logic circuits to each other, and your controls, with some sort of wiring.

The main disadvantage is that it needs in-game power to function. You are spending a huge amount of time and space making sure your batteries are charged, so to speak.

But again, you're using pure logic. It is a far cry short of a proper computer, with the capacity to perform operations, store results, and process input and output.

I don't want to bring up the irritating arguments about DF vs. Minecraft, but there are things people are doing in the Minecraft world that would fascinate you, if you are truly interested in in-game computer design. Check this out: Link

A google search will turn up even more. They're getting crazy, with actual RAM and CPUs performing calculations.

What I'm finding interesting is the similarities in design. If you zoom out, and look at your device and theirs on a sort of macro level, you'll see that there are very similar patterns developing. Minecraft has the disadvantage of requiring actual physical circuitry to connect all the bits, and the circuits cannot cross each other or they will literally short-circuit. The wireless connecting of levers and gears gives DF a big advantage there. But Minecraft does allow very simple, easy logic circuits to be built that take up very little in-game space and time to hook together and get working. And while the physical wires make space and organization a problem, you have the ability to see where things are connected without reams of notes.

It might give you some ideas for your computer to see how the Minecraft engineers have confronted and solved similar problems. For example, how to store 16-bit information in an actual RAM-style memory bank with proper addresses for each location. Imagine what your computer could do if it not only responded to sentences, but remembered things you asked it previously! "Wait, weren't we talking about Magma a few minutes ago?"

Your big advantage, as I mentioned before, is that each lever can connect to as many gears as you like. And another lever can connect to as many other gears as you like, including ones the first lever is already connected to. Few input, many outputs -- that sounds a lot like it has neural net possibilities. And you don't have to worry about the wires crossing! So you don't have the physical limitations of working in 3 dimensions.

This is a fascinating project and I am interested in seeing what comes from it. Keep up the !!WORK!!

[Angel-of-Dusk]

>Welcome to the Machine
>WELCOME TO THE MACHINE
>>>>>> WELCOME TO THE MACHINE

OH GOD THE NIGHTMARES OF ECCO ALL OVER AGAIN MAKE IT STOP

[BloodBeard]

I've played minecraft and know a little bit about redstone circuitry, enough to know the advantage DF has and that I probably wouldn't be interested in trying something like this in it. 

That minecraft CPU is really interesting because he built it how i'm building this in a way with no complete plan in mind and inventing everything on a need basis. So far i've shunned that kind of design because it hasn't been as efficient. Maybe it has to do with the fact that so far i've basically only been working on the hardware. One could compare what i've been making so far to a typewriter with everything working by mechanical means and nothing more. A more appropriate title to this topic could be "Engineering an AI".

Things might be different when I get to the actual AI and finding a way to connect the 2 points from word rec to the AI taking action. Everything i've done so far i've had a vague idea how to do it from the very start except for the AI's brain, so i'll definately be open to new ideas and looking around to get some inspiration.

Getting power isn't actually a huge problem and takes up very little space. The individual cells are as small as they can get for fluid logic and I still have a lot of unused space where all the logical gearing is. The 0.1 alpha text display needs I think 1,500 minimum uristwatts to run out of a maximum 28,735 if all the gears were engaged.

[BloodBeard]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Its broken the surface...

Planning stage is out, building stage is in. In looking around to see where I should build the logic banks and other assorted stuff I used reveal to see how much rock formations there are on the magma level. It's right below where the mass of machinery is and there was little hope of finding much space for 2-pump transistor cells which need 5 z-levels, and I was right, but there was a surprising amount of space to fit a couple hundred or so 1-pump cells which only need 3 z-levels, 2 if you only build a single row of them. The 1-pump cells are the ones that always need to be pumping to send a signal which can be very laggy so I don't use many of them, but I should be able to fit all the ones I need for this part of the project down there and save me some space.

Lowering my G_FPS_CAP from 20 has proven its worth in mining out the new areas. When it came to dumping all the stone which is notorious for hurting FPS, I was getting a good 30FPS when I otherwise would be getting around 10. It'll still take an hour or so to dump it all but that's better then 3 hours. If anyone has other tricks to maxing FPS when minimizing DF and letting it run please let me know.

[MaximumZero]

Have you got temperature turned off? How about weather?

[miauw62]

The main advantage DF seems to have in the computing department is that you can connect any lever to any number of gears without building physical connections between the two. You have wireless technology in your fort! Just imagine for a while what it would be like if you had to physically connect each of your logic circuits to each other, and your controls, with some sort of wiring.

Then it would look a bit more like minecraft computers i think.
(i was to post a video, but couldnt find a good one.)

[BloodBeard]

Have you got temperature turned off? How about weather?

Always.

Doortufts is now 30 years old! Almost that entire 30 years my dwarves have been at work, I never leave the game unpaused when there's no jobs to do. I crunched the numbers and the average age of my 19 dwarves is 92.68, 96.68 if you don't include the youngest dwarf (by a large margin) who is 28 and is the only dwarf born in the fort. The second youngest is 81. 8 dwarves are over 100 with the oldest being Sodel Faceglazes at a respectable 117. He still has some colour in his hair.

[ashton1993]

Heh, *bloodbeard makes some tea and crumpets, then returns to the computer to discover 18 of the 19 dwarfs dead of old age* "Fuuuuu-"

[Loud Whispers]

Heh, *bloodbeard makes some tea and crumpets, then returns to the computer to discover 18 of the 19 dwarfs dead of old age* "Fuuuuu-"

*Click*

[BloodBeard]

Bottom level of some word rec stuff:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There's quite a bit of unused space on this z-level and the magma sea is directly below, i'll take another look at it later with DFhack's reveal to see if I can make any use of it.

Linking word rec should be fairly straightforward and like 0.1 but without that one horrid part that took weeks.

[Kofthefens]

Magma-carp riding elephants, this is one dorfy project.

[BloodBeard]

Haven't been working on this lately for obvious reasons, but I don't have a whole lot of interest in getting a fort up and running in the new version or playing with it much and will be continuing the science in Doortufts soon.

[Urist McDwarfFortress]

Magma-carp riding elephants, this is one dorfy project.

This could be the greatest exclamation of all time.

[Quin]

By Armok, I started reading this expecting to see Eliza's assembly code converted into Dwarf-Logic. I did not expect to find such a feat of engineering.