Kickoff minor project

6-1-2014

• Happy New Year….

Another one…

Walter Murphy “a fifth of Beethoven”

Electric Light Orchestra “Roll over Beethoven”

Memetics

The ‘meme’

• Richard Dawkins, “The Selfish Gene”, 1976 • Evolution, is not about the species, not about the

individal, but is all about the gene • Organisms are ‘just ’ gene-copying devices • Humans are ‘just’ incredibly complicated devices

for protection and copying of genes • Then what’s the point of consciousness,

intelligence, culture, …? • Memes!

The Human Species

• Copiers of ideas, culture, behavior • Imitation built in • Mirroring neurons

[wikipedia]

Memetics

• “memetics is the study of the workings of memes: how they interact, replicate, and evolve”

• Biological Definition of Meme (Dawkins), “the meme is the basic unit of cultural transmission, or imitation.”

• “A meme is a unit of information in a mind whose existence influences events such that more copies of itself get created in other minds.”

Memes

• Dawkins’ original examples of memes: . . .tunes, ideas, slogans, fashions, technology: pottery, building bridges,…

• “A wagon with spoked wheels does not only carry wheat or load from A naar B; it also carries the brilliant idea of a wagon with spoked wheels from one brain to the other.” (Daniel Dennett)

oorsprong: Dogma, Kevin Smith

Beethoven’s Fifth

• First four notes • WW-II • short-short-short-long, V for Victory in Morse • The Longest Day

virusses

• A long time ago, in evolution, a new kind of organism emerged, with the characteristic that it exploits reproducing capabilities of other oganisms to copy itself (its genes). So-called virusses.

• A virus is anything that uses external copying machinery to have copies made of itself.

• Biologic virusses • Analogous tricks are used by computer-virussen • There are also brain virussen, ‘virus of the mind’

Biology Computers Mindgene machine instruction memecell computer mindDNA machine language internal brain representation of knowledgevirus computer virus virus of the mindgene pool all software meme poolspores/germs electronic bulletin-board postings broadcasts/publicationsspecies operating system cultural institutiongenus & higher classifications machine architecture program cultureorganism “back door” or security hole behavior/artifactgenetic susceptibility artificial life psychological susceptibility or “button”genetic evolution reuse and combination cultural evolution

Brain-virusses • Examples from “Virus of the Mind”, Richard Brodie

– In 1978, in a small village in Guyana, a closely knit community of people purposely killed themselves by drinking a mixture of cyanide, Valium, and Fla-Vor-Aid. They knew they would die. As to what else they knew, we can only speculate. Did they “know” that a far greater reward awaited them in the next life? Did they “know” that obeying the orders of Jim Jones, their leader, was their duty? Did they “know” that if they just followed their faith, everything would turn out all right? It’s pretty clear what they “knew” hurt them: they didn’t drink that poison out of instinct—they were following the programming of some memes that resulted in their deaths.

– Why do some outlandish stories get endlessly perpetuated as “urban legends”?

– Why do some chain letters travel around and around the world, seemingly unstoppable?

• (Wham’s Last Christmas?)

Evolution

Memes are subject to evolution Evolution can exist when there are: 1. Inheritance 2. Variation 3. Selection

Evolution

• Evolution is a scientific model about the emergence of complexity

• as opposed to thermo-dynamics / entropy that strives to reduce complexity, organization or structure.

• Self-organisation

The Selfish Gene for a Brain

• Genetic evolution has brought the human species to the point where it had a brain. At some point in the past the brain must have had a genetisch advantage.

• That genetic advantage makes that the gene for having a brain is genetically copied

• As a by-poduct, such a brain has enabled the start of a second evolutionary process, memetic evolution

Susan Blackmore /Daniel Denett

The Selfish Gene for a Brain

• Evolution of ideas, culture, society are about the selfish meme, like the evolution of species is about the gene.

• From the meme’s perspective, not only our brain, but also body, cities, television sets etc. exist only for the purpose of copying memes.

• If television sets would not have been good for copying memes, they would not have been developed! (They surely did not evolve for biological, genetic reasons!)

memetics as a meme…

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=onVxp40MisI

memetics as a meme…

• Dr. Who, “the Adherents of the Repeated Meme”

• The Doctor - “If you stop and think about it, a repeated meme is just an idea, and that’s all they are, an idea”

Memes • The evolution of language has enabled explosive

growth of memetic evolution.

“Het heeft macht, zo’n woord. Het zal zich laten zeggen, later, ondenkbaar veel later, door onvoorstelbare monden die nu nog niet bestaan.”

Cees Nooteboom, De Omweg naar Santiago Niemand heeft die plaatsen met die vreemde namen ooit bezocht. Als ik aankom zullen ze met brood en wijn aan de grens van het dorp staan. Turend op de kaart laat ik Spaanse namen over mijn tong gaan... La Almunia de Doña Godina, Alhama de Aragón, Sistema Iberico, Laguna Negra de Urbión, als een ketting van woordjuwelen liggen die dorpen, passen, vlaktes, stromen rond de harde, korte klank van Soria, elke naam ooit eens door iemand bedacht en nu een ding geworden dat mensen elkaar achteloos aanreiken: ik ga vanavond naar Soria, ik kom uit Soria. Het is onmeetbaar wat er in namen zit samengebald, hoeveel duizenden of miljoenen keren dat ene woord, dat nu alleen nog maar een plaats betekent, is uitgesproken en opgeschreven, in wat voor vormen het voortsluimert in kadasters, rondhangt op briefhoofden, stafkaarten, opdoemt in brieven en dagboeken, aktes en rekeningen, opvliegt uit de monden van kinderen, nonnen, moordenaars: ‘Ik ga vanavond naar Soria, ik kom uit Soria.’ Het heeft macht, zo’n woord: het zal zich laten zeggen, later, ondenkbaar veel later, door onvoorstelbare monden die nu nog niet bestaan. En denk erom, nooit ben je ergens niet in een naam, niet in een streek met een naam, op een berg met een naam, in een plaats met een naam – altijd vertoef je in het een of andere woord dat door anderen – nooit gezien, allang vergeten – bedacht is, ooit voor het eerst is opgeschreven. Wij zijn altijd in woorden.

Memes • Memes about danger, food and sex are

particularly effective, because we are genetically interested for these subjects – For instance: conspiracy theories

Memes • Conspiracy theories

2012, the end of the world

References

• Richard Dawkins, “The Selfish Gene” • Richard Dawkins, “The Greatest Show on Earth”

(Read if you think Intelligent Design sounds like a reasonable theory to you)

• Richard Brodie, “Virus of the Mind” (available online)

• Daniel Dennet, “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” • Daniel Dennet, “The intentional stance” • Susan Blackmore “The Meme Machine”

(http://vimeo.com/16676176)

Memetics Simulation

• Development of memes in a simulated world • Virtual world in PT9.05, where robots drive

through the world • Visualisation of the virtual world • Task: develop your own succesful memes ad

spread them through the world • Accelerated simulation for 1 year, 1 day equals

30 seconds

World

• Continents 2m x 2m

• Cities • Populations • Memes

L1

C3

C4C1

C2

C5 C6

C7C8

C9

C10C11

C12L2

L3

L4 L6L5

(0,0)

L7

Memes • Memetische codes • Mind Virus • Susceptability • Genetic metaphor:

100 “nucleotides”, ACGT ATCGTTACGCAA...

• Interviews and market research reveal memetic code of individuals

• Tests effectiveness of memes

• Search algorithm

Media

• Information and feedback through media • Provide information on local trends and memes • Teams may respond to that by strategic

directions to their software

Economy

• Research and development of ideas and concepts (memes) cost money

• Succesful memes earn money • Efficient use of resources

Solution

• Develop strategy • Find succesful memes • Strategic planning • Only strategic decisions entered manually • (no manual driving of robots!)

Launching Memes

• Go to a city • Research the ‘market’, trends • Interview specific individuals • Return to the lab • Process the interviews • Analyse and develop your own memes • Test memes on individuals • Prepare a meme-campaign • Launch the campaign in a city

Moving Robots

• Operations can only performed at the right location

• And sometimes only with the right robot • It is important to be able to drive your robot

around reliably

Opstelling

MemeSim

Team 2

Team 1

Team 3

Team 4

Team 5

Scoreboard

RobotPositionMonitor

Camera 3

Camera 2

Camera 1

Camera 4

Team 6

Team 7

131.155.41.177

Protocol

• TCP connection to MemeSim ip address: 131.155.41.177

• Different ports per team, team 1: 7811, team 2: 7812, etc.

• Commands take the form: cm!op1!op2!op3... Commands are separated by line feeds “\n”

• Some commands depend on the location of the robots

Protocol, robot query

Request: rq!group-id!robot-id Response: rq!group-id!robot-id!pos-x!pos-y!angle Error: rq!group-id!robot-id!err Location: Not relevant Costs: None Duration: None

Protocol, market query

Request: mq!group-id!robot-id!number Response: mq!group-id!robot-id!

number{!individual-id{@memename@level}+}+ Error: mq!group-id!robot-id!number!err Location: City Costs: 50 + 10 x number euro Duration: 30 minutes x number

Protocol, interview person

Request: ip!group-id!robot-id!individual-id Response: ip!group-id!robot-id!individual-id!ok Error: ip!group-id!robot-id!individual-id!err Location: City Costs: 100 euro Duration: 2 hours

Protocol, process interview

Request: pi!group-id!robot-id!individual-id Response: pi!group-id!robot-id!individual-id

@genome Error: pi!group-id!robot-id!individual-id!err Location: Lab Costs: None Duration: None

Protocol, test meme

Request: tm!group-id!robot-id!meme-genome! individual-id

Response: tm!group-id!robot-id!meme-genome! individual-id@effect

Error: tm!group-id!robot-id!meme-genome! individual-id!err

Location: Lab Costs: 100 euro Duration: 1 hour

Protocol, prepare campaign

Request: pc!group-id!robot-id!meme-name! meme-genome

Response: pc!group-id!robot-id!meme-name! meme-genome!ok

Error: pc!group-id!robot-id!meme-name! meme-genome!err

Location: Lab Costs: None Duration: None

Protocol, launch campaign

Request: lc!group-id!robot-id!meme-name!budget Response: lc!group-id!robot-id!meme-name!budget!ok Error: lc!group-id!robot-id!meme-name!budget!err Location: City Costs: budget euro Duration: 1 day

Protocol, check account

Request: ca!group-id Response: ca!group-id!saldo Error: ca!group-id!err Location: Not relevant Costs: None Duration: None

Protocol, debug

Request: db!team-id!{reset|money} Response: db!team-id!{reset|money}!ok Error: db!team-id!{reset|money}!err Location: Not relevant Costs: None Duration: None

Robot positions

• Infrastructure for positioning of robots using the ARToolkit

• Reference markers • Coordinates (in mm) position relative to reference

point and orientation (angle in radians) • Can be requested through the TCP

connection • Only within continents • Paasages between continents

only one-directional L1

C3

C4C1

C2

C5 C6

C7C8

C9

C10C11

C12L2

L3

L4 L6L5

(0,0)

markers

• Collection of markers is fixed. • For each team a pdf is provided with two

robot markers • Print it at the right scale, leaving sufficient hite

margin around it • Attach solid and flat to the robots

Software source

• Software tools available with source code • als referentie of als basis voor eigen software • XNAClient

CIBase, vectors, matrices, settings TCPSupport, tcp communication

• RobotPositionMonitor

Admoveo

• control through XBee • Use your own channel per team, similar to

previous labs • Needs to be robust for longer durations • Do not leave the playing field, marked by

white tape.

Visualisation in 3D

• Each team develops a visualisation of the virtual world

• Wat is happening in the physical world (as far as your own robots are concerned) should be visible in the virtual representation

• Possibly extra information for your own game control. For instance where are the robots heading? How is the research coming along?

Finally,

• The final simulation will not be identical to the one during the testing phase!

• For instance, the memes will be different and the way memes spread are different. Don’t optimize your strategy for the behavior during testing!

• Infrastructure will become available today.

Finally, (2)

• Do not assume that network connections never fail. Especially when they are wireless.

• Do not assume that your software cannot crash (?)

• Be aware of some possible latency in the position measurements

• Familiarize yourself with the adjusting the camera settings

Finally, (3)

• Test often, long and start testing in time • KISS (‘keep it simple stupid’) • Make clear agreements within your

team • Good luck!

“Yeah I'm pretty happy, and I don't need your virus of the mind”

Heather Nova