Swarm Intelgence
Ok yet another Idea that has just popped up...although I think I might be able to help at least a little with this one...^^
I've been looking at the demo swarm code and saw that the agnets do communitcate with each other. So My mind like usaul started compileing somthing weird and interesting as usaul.
I thought why not make many tribe's of the swarms with ceartain food sources. Much like a fountain. All the tribes would have a nest. The nest would be very big and for every cerartain amount of energy it would get from the food source it would pump out another little agent for that tribe. The tribe would communicate things like the postion of food sources and enemy tribes by going to the top of the nest landing there and while landed there the peice of inforation that the agant has dubbed imporant enough to be shared would be first given to the nest and from the nest sent to each agent of that tribe.
The nest would need to get the food energy right. And of course the nest wouldnt be able to move, so some agents would be assigned by the nest to go to a known food source and suck up some of the lipud like substance and bring it back. In turn it would go to the middle segment and land in a funnel like spot. There it would push the lipud back out and it would funnel into the nest.
The agents would also be able to fight in a sence. They would be able to damage each other by opening a clamp near the front of the swarm like agent and "bite" down on a enemy. When a enemy's life line, or the nerve connecting its brain to the rest of its body is broken then it would fall to the ground and then when the brain see's it cant contol the body it goes into a dead state where as a message is transmetted to its nest telling it that this agent is dead and the nest would know where it had sent it. (Got the dead idea from the tank one posted already by someone else. Thanks for then inspreation)
And etc. Etc. The creatures would evolve by haveing their life line more protected or being faster etc..
What do you think??
Great Inspiration
Thanks for the inspiration, it's one the few lacking posts. Some of your ideas sound practical others are more inclined for game play. There is a fine line between simulation and application. With simulation, it's up to our imagination. When we enter the applied mathematics side of development many of you ideas lack coherence. For example how do agents communicate? Is it explicit, top down design, or is implicit communication more advantageous?
If we use top down communications structure, what variables are we defining? is this a syntax, group command language, or a evolved/self pruning state machine? How do we define these 'protocols'? Or is implicit communication possible, such as life lines as your describe them. How is a life line structured, how many communication pathways are defined? Could updated weights in a neural net protect the colony? I would love to hear a better explanation of some of the bottom up processes required. There is lots of research on the network from both perspectives. Can you reference any similar research and its related findings?
To let the optimist shine through be willing to accept failure, without accepting defeat.