Plans
In the short term we hope HAL will play the role of a test bed for the
idea of completely embedding a genetic algorithm in a cellular automata -
enabling us to find the best way of implmenting such a scheme.
In the medium term we hope HAL will be able to display the ability to
evolve evolvability, including the ability to evolve sex.
Evolving evolvability will be critical as we are dealing with the domain of
computation universal cellular automata - and these can often be rather
brittle.
If higher-level representations of the target problem spaces do not develop
within the model, HAL will remain confined to solving simple problems, a
domain which it is neither targetted at nor suited to.
In the long term we hope HAL will become viable as a design tool for
evolving electronic circuitry, which wil be able to be used as custom
components in future computers employing areas of programmable logic,
and be suitable for use as stand-alone components in conventional
chip-designs.
Aims
We find it helpful, as a method of maintaining a clear direction, to aim
consistently at a long-term goal. For HAL, this is the development
of artificial intelligence in a particular, narrow domain. The chosen
domain is the firld of computerised players of strategic games, in
particular Go, the national game of Japan.
Go is a game with very simple rules and yet extroadinarly complex dynamics
which has the virtue that it is simple to score automatically.
It is currently widely believed that Go is well beyond the range of genetic
approaches. While essentially, we agree, it seems to us that this is
unlikely to remain the case indefinitely and that, one day, the best Go
players will consist of largely artificial evolved organisms.
We hope that the first such players will be HAL's distant descendants.
Our Go-playing program is called Gozilla.
There are some Go and computer-go programming links available.