Week 1: Itโ€™s Alive - Bootstrapping the Simulated Mind

Published

March 4, 2024

Week 1: Itโ€™s Alive - Bootstrapping the Simulated Mind

โ€œLife, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.โ€ โ€” Frankenstein

๐ŸŽฏ This Weekโ€™s Goal

In our first week, weโ€™re focusing on building the bare-bones agent scaffold. This includes: - Basic movement capabilities - Environmental observation - Simple action loop - Logging system for debugging

๐Ÿง… Key Terms

### Agent ๐Ÿง…

Agent

Formal: An autonomous entity that perceives its environment and takes actions to achieve specific goals.

AILO-style: A digital being thatโ€™s learning to walk before it can run (or think, or feel).

### Event Loop ๐Ÿง…

Event Loop

Formal: A programming construct that waits for and dispatches events or messages in a program.

AILO-style: The agentโ€™s internal clock that keeps it from standing still like a statue.

### Reflex Agent ๐Ÿง…

Reflex Agent

Formal: An agent that selects actions based on the current percept, ignoring the rest of the percept history.

AILO-style: A digital creature that reacts first and asks questions later (or never).

๐Ÿ› ๏ธ Implementation Details

Simple Unity World

  • Basic terrain setup
  • Essential game objects
  • Navigation mesh for agent movement

Agent Prefab

  • Movement controller
  • State machine for idle/move behaviors
  • Basic collision detection

Logging System

  • Event logging
  • Action tracking
  • State changes

๐Ÿ“š Key Concepts

Event Loop

  • Input processing
  • State updates
  • Action execution

Input-Output Behavior

  • Environmental perception
  • Decision making
  • Action execution

Reflex Agents

  • Simple stimulus-response patterns
  • Basic decision making
  • Immediate action execution

๐Ÿ”ฎ Next Steps

In Week 2, weโ€™ll be adding: - Long-term memory system - Time-stamped events - Memory retrieval strategies

๐Ÿ‘ฝ Martian Mode

Greetings, Earthling! Let me explain what we built this week in simple terms:

What We Built: A digital being that can move around and react to its environment. Think of it as a very simple robot that can walk and respond to basic commands.

Why It Matters: Before we can build complex AI that thinks and feels, we need to start with the basics. This is like teaching a baby to crawl before it can walk.

How to Explain It to Your Dog: Woof! (Translation: โ€œItโ€™s like a new puppy learning to move its legs for the first time. Simple, but necessary!โ€)

Stay tuned for more updates as we bring our first agent to life!

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