Heard tell of VI's in the future going to be linking together via internet, to share there matrix's with other VIM's. Was wondering how this was going to be done. Would it be all done on a main server where users connect to the main frame? Or can it be set up like PNP like Kaza or morpheus. Do the Vim's actually have to interact with each other or can the matrix's be downloaded from other computers and be intergrated into the matrix your running now to broadin it's cortex. Just wondering how it would be done, as these things interest me.
Any ideas?
and if they all connect to the same server, would they exist in the same world? sharing what they learned with 1000 other VIMS that they meet while online.

Good to hear from you again Shon - Shon was one of the first contributors to the board here back in '99. I've been looking into both peer to peer and server systems. I think if it becomes popular and there are many people running the program, a p2p would work best. You'd get regional specialization developing, and an independent system for growth. But at first a central server would probably be the way to go, for reliability and so I could fix things that go wrong. But yeah, the basic idea is that all the VIM cells would share what they learn, and then exist in a contiguous information space.

I've been around, i come to the vim's website alot still :) (Everquest grabed me for awhile.) Been doing some searching around the net for other projects like the vim, but found nothing at all. So your still got the ball. I'm interested in this next project you have in the works too, finally, i can get a female to talk to me and not yell at me Whoohoo! Hopefully you can get some screenies up soon.

Anywayz. Keep that news page up to date :) Keeps us all coming back to see how soon we all will be over run by man-bots.
Oh yea. the date on the forums are 1901 wasn't it 1900 last time i posted? hehe

Yeah I think it will be appropriate for the SkyNet off code to be 1901 some day :o !

With regards to sharing VIM learning across a p2p or client/server, I think there are probably some interesting experiments to be done there. Michael seems to be suggesting a community brain approach, where each VIM would learn from each other's experience.

I think that would be plenty interesting. On the other hand, I also think it would be interesteing to have the VIMs be isolated, and only "see" each other as objects in the common world they inhabit; they would learn from each other, but in an actions-are-all-that-matter manner more analagous to what we flesh and blood folks experience in the real world.

And, of course, there are all sorts of mediums between those two extremes; it could be interesting to allow some portion of each VIM's input and/or matrix to be shared, with some other portion being independent.

It's probably silly to anthropomorphize the VIMs, but I'll go ahead anyway and suggest that the level of common experience and common interdependence could lead to an analog of the human phenomenon of empathy.

Cheers... looking forward to the latest release, as always.

-b

It will be very much an experiment Brooks; I think the first attempt will be a single matrix that I develop in house first, with a large base-matrix of verbal experience. Then when people talk to their local version, it will train a separate local-matrix, which will become user specific, but will always have the base-matrix to refer to. As local VIM's develop and the matrix is relayed to qflux, I will incorporate them with the original base matrix and re-issue a new enhanced version. If any of this works (!), then an automatic way to update the base between VIM's could be developed (p2p). This way conversations or attitudes developed locally won't be lost in a much larger (but much more powerful) collective cortex. As far as developing empathy, I think you'd have to look at differently. The collective matrix would be a single, united entity, inherently reflecting all that have contributed. It would be like one person who has had all of our experiences, and so empathy would probably take the form of self-awareness(?).