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robotguy commented on Digital Red Queen: Adversarial Program Evolution in Core War with LLMs   sakana.ai/drq/... · Posted by u/hardmaru
robotguy · a month ago
I was under the impression that Core War was pretty much a solved problem with multiple optimal warrior types in a rock-paper-scissors circular dominance. I have been somewhat interested in Core War for decades now, but I admit I haven't done any real deep dives into the history/evolution of the game. Does anyone have any suggested reading on how Core Warriors have progressed over the years and what the current status is? I follow /r/corewar but it seems pretty dead.

I am currently working on my own ALife simulation partly because of my (possibly mistaken) belief that progress on Core War had dead-ended. Discovering that there may still be more to do in this realm with Core War probably won't stop me working on my project, but I'd be interested to hear what is still going on.

robotguy commented on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)    · Posted by u/david927
asalahli · 2 months ago
Any way to follow the progress of the project?
robotguy · 2 months ago
I’m learning git and it’s on a private GitHub, but since I’m not a “real” programmer, I’m a bit reticent to make it public.
robotguy commented on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)    · Posted by u/david927
robotguy · 2 months ago
I'm working on Mutacortechs, an ALife simulation where "organisms" each have their own emulated 16-bit processor with 64K RAM. Like Core Wars for the 21st century. It's a small project compared to what some others here are working on, but it's an order of magnitude larger than anything this embedded EE has ever written. I have the ISA designed, assembler complete, emulator stage 1 complete (160/204 instructions implemented), and the start of the simulation working. Last night I wrote a program in custom assembly for an "organism" that looked around, found food, moved toward it, and ate it. I'm pretty excited by the milestone!
robotguy commented on 4 billion if statements (2023)   andreasjhkarlsson.github.... · Posted by u/damethos
rossdavidh · 2 months ago
Really if you are not making custom silicon for this problem, you are just wasting our time here aren't you.
robotguy · 2 months ago
I mean, this is the ultimate domain for Quantum Computers:

"Is it odd or Even?"

"YES"

robotguy commented on RoboCrop: Teaching robots how to pick tomatoes   phys.org/news/2025-12-rob... · Posted by u/smurda
HanClinto · 2 months ago
"Tomatoes typically bear fruit in clusters, requiring robots to pick the ripe ones while leaving the rest on the vine, demanding advanced decision-making and control capabilities."

At what point do we begin to grow tomatoes specifically for their harvestability (in addition / as opposed to other attributes)?

This sort of thing happened years ago with farmers producing product specifically for things like "durability in shipping" -- I'm thinking of "machine-pickable" as the natural next step for growers to aim for.

Is this already being done? I'd love to hear about how this sort of thing is already in place.

Whether this means mechanically manipulating flower + fruit locations (specifically growing vines in a way that produces fruit in a controlled manner), or possibly even breeding cultivars that specifically have more robot-friendly fruit clustering, I wonder what these sorts of efforts might look like in the future?

robotguy · 2 months ago
They're called "processing tomatoes" and it's a very interesting crop and industry. Bred for a narrow ripening window, to be machine harvestable, and shippable in massive bulk.

https://ctga.org/tomato-facts/

robotguy commented on Be Like Clippy   be-clippy.com/... · Posted by u/Aloha
gradientsrneat · 2 months ago
For those that don't get the reference, this is referring to the "Universal Paperclips" clicker game (inspired by Cookie Clicker) where you try to make as many paperclips as possible.
robotguy · 2 months ago
If you're reading this far down this comment chain, you might find this interesting:

  The paperclip maximizer is a thought experiment described by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003. It illustrates the existential risk that an artificial general intelligence may pose to human beings were it to be successfully designed to pursue even seemingly harmless goals and the necessity of incorporating machine ethics into artificial intelligence design. The scenario describes an advanced artificial intelligence tasked with manufacturing paperclips. If such a machine were not programmed to value living beings, then given enough power over its environment, it would try to turn all matter in the universe, including living beings, into paperclips or machines that manufacture further paperclips.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence

Universal Paperclips (2017) - https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/

robotguy commented on NTSB report: Decryption of images from the Titan submersible camera [pdf] (2024)   data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Docu... · Posted by u/bmurray7jhu
rozab · 3 months ago
What's with the entire dev board crammed in there? Is that... normal? What board is it?
robotguy · 3 months ago
>What's with the entire dev board crammed in there? Is that... normal?

Yep. I designed boards for cameras like this (and the vehicles they are mounted on) for 20 years. When you're only going to sell ~30 a year, and it's going into a $7k enclosure, the extra $7 for the dev board you used during prototyping isn't even a consideration. Go ahead and design around the breadboard, at this low volume it's WAY cheaper than the time to re-design the support circuitry from scratch and it gives you time to start working on the NEXT project that has already been sold to customers with a delivery date quickly looming.

Many times I have heard the tech stack for the subsea industry called "Shop & Glue."

robotguy commented on The Death of Arduino?   linkedin.com/posts/adafru... · Posted by u/ChuckMcM
robotguy · 3 months ago
Here's the chance for the Basic Stamp to make a comeback!
robotguy commented on WeatherNext 2: Our most advanced weather forecasting model   blog.google/technology/go... · Posted by u/meetpateltech
rkagerer · 3 months ago
I noticed my local weather forecasts from Google search have gotten significantly less accurate these days.

Like, they consistenly called for freezing seasonal overnight lows many weeks before it was remotely probable. You'd get better predictions asking anyone who's lived here a couple years. In fairness, I'm in a region that's notoriously difficult to forecast, but the popular non-Google sources seem to be generating better predictions.

I wonder if the rollout of this new model is related (either occurred and made it worse, or will come and make it better).

I'd love to get some hard data. Are there any sites out there where you can compare past performance of different prediction models at a very localized scale?

robotguy · 3 months ago
Not affiliated, just thought it was a neat idea when I stumbled upon it during some hobby weather research last year:

ForecastAdvisor will show you the accuracy of the major weather forecasters, including AerisWeather, Foreca, Microsoft, the National Weather Service, OpenWeather, The Weather Channel, Wetter.com, WeatherBit, World Weather Online, and others. They also provide links to your city's weather forecast from all the other weather forecasters, so you can compare for yourself.

https://www.forecastadvisor.com/

robotguy commented on My favorite cult sci-fi and fantasy books you may not have heard of before   shepherd.com/best-books/c... · Posted by u/bwb
bwb · 4 months ago
Anyone got some favs to share?

I need to read the new Peter Hamilton book (book 2 due out soon). And I am ashamed to admit I haven't read any Greg Egan yet, need to get on that :)

robotguy · 4 months ago
For anyone (like me) who likes their sci-fi fun and a bit cheesy I have a few recs:

Dream Park - Larry Niven & Steven Barnes: A group of pretend adventurers suit up for a campaign called "The South Seas Treasure Game." As in the early Role Playing Games, there are Dungeon Masters, warriors, magicians, and thieves. The difference? At Dream Park, a futuristic fantasy theme park full of holographic attractions and the latest in VR technology, they play in an artificial enclosure that has been enhanced with special effects, holograms, actors, and a clever storyline. The players get as close as possible to truly living their adventure. All's fun and games until a Park security guard is murdered, a valuable research property is stolen, and all evidence points to someone inside the game. The park's head of security, Alex Griffin, joins the game to find the killer, but finds new meaning in the games he helps keep alive.

The Long Run - Daniel Keys Moran: Years after the massacre of the Castanaveras genies, Peaceforcer Elite Commander Mohammed Vance still searches for the survivors. Now the gene-altered children have come of age. Denice – the world’s most powerful telepath – and Trent the Uncatchable – hacker, thief, and revolutionary – are about to come out of hiding. The world will never be the same. (It's book 2 in the series, but I'd recommend this as a stand-alone, or starting here.)

u/robotguy

KarmaCake day369June 16, 2021
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“When I became an adult I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” ― C.S. Lewis
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