Re: FH Machine People

Thomas Anderson wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 22 Apr 1999, Laserlight wrote:
> 
> > Ships run by AI's.	Write a strategy program with random variations
and note
> > which ones survive.
> 
> i think this is certainly an interesting idea; i'm pretty sure i could
> reduce my tactical skill to a fairly simple set of rules without too
much
> trouble. 

It's more difficult than it looks: but by no means TOO hard: One Hint:
Use a Genetic algorithm.

I "grew" the AI for an Automatic Threat Evaluation and Weapon Assignment
system for some NATO frigates this way. I can give a _few_ details, not
the classy stuff (obviously), but the theory behind it.

First, pick your threat scenarios (this is the hard bit, and the devil
is in the details).

Second, come up with a whole bunch of Rules, including their
contrapositives and negatives. e.g. "Shoot at closest ship. Shoot at
furthest ship. Take no account of ship range etc"
These are the Genes of a system, usually a 3-state.

Third make a systems for generating systems.

Fourth, subject the resultant "animals" to the threat environment. Those
that survive get to breed. It's important that this be via sexual
reproduction if you don't want to wait a very long time! That is, each
offspring gets either the mother's or father's gene in each section of
it's code, chosen randomly.

Fifth, wait. Eventually, your population will show distinct trends, with
a large majority having one or more of its genes being constant. These
are the important ones.

There's a bit more to it than this, but this should do as a start.
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