Comments on: Unexpected levels of intrusion http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/2006/06/25/unexpected-levels-of-intrusion/ The experiences in Second Life of Ordinal Malaprop. Scripting, design, observations, notes. Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:17:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Elde Eponym http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/2006/06/25/unexpected-levels-of-intrusion/#comment-288 Elde Eponym Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:45:12 +0000 http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/2006/06/25/unexpected-levels-of-intrusion/#comment-288 Far be it from to contradict your wisdom Madame Malaprop - but an error occurs in your logic. Such as system can indeed persist for year, so long as no changes to the underlying reality cause the rezzer itself to cease to function. Far be it from to contradict your wisdom Madame Malaprop - but an error occurs in your logic. Such as system can indeed persist for year, so long as no changes to the underlying reality cause the rezzer itself to cease to function.

]]> By: ordinal.malaprop http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/2006/06/25/unexpected-levels-of-intrusion/#comment-201 ordinal.malaprop Tue, 27 Jun 2006 20:14:39 +0000 http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/2006/06/25/unexpected-levels-of-intrusion/#comment-201 Redundancy and failsafes and not writing brittle, finicky scripts are of course important, and to be honest that is the trick with scripting in Second Life; it is not so much the language, which can be grasped quite quickly, but knowing all of the possible problems and being able to compensate for them. The idea of evolving devices, though, does interest me, though I confess to having a background and a lifelong interest in such things as evolutionary algorithms. For instance, to take the example of the tram in Caledon: each tram could have a genome which determines such parameters as its speed, its movement timer and so on. The longer a particular genome survives, the more the rezzer favours it. When it does die, the rezzer picks out a new genome based on merging all of the most successful ones, plus a random mutation factor to keep things evolving. Such a system could keep going for years, no matter what changes are made to the underlying reality. And that is but a simple example. Redundancy and failsafes and not writing brittle, finicky scripts are of course important, and to be honest that is the trick with scripting in Second Life; it is not so much the language, which can be grasped quite quickly, but knowing all of the possible problems and being able to compensate for them.

The idea of evolving devices, though, does interest me, though I confess to having a background and a lifelong interest in such things as evolutionary algorithms. For instance, to take the example of the tram in Caledon: each tram could have a genome which determines such parameters as its speed, its movement timer and so on. The longer a particular genome survives, the more the rezzer favours it. When it does die, the rezzer picks out a new genome based on merging all of the most successful ones, plus a random mutation factor to keep things evolving. Such a system could keep going for years, no matter what changes are made to the underlying reality. And that is but a simple example.

]]> By: Desmond Shang http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/2006/06/25/unexpected-levels-of-intrusion/#comment-187 Desmond Shang Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:54:14 +0000 http://ordinalmalaprop.com/engine/2006/06/25/unexpected-levels-of-intrusion/#comment-187 Another odd bug. The nasty bugs are the ones that unexpectedly change behaviour over the course of days, weeks, or months. This brings up an interesting sort of natural selection that seems to be encroaching. So - what of our creations? The brittle ones, the ones that cannot suffer the slings and arrows of serendipitous oddness, simply don't survive. Those things that do survive, do so with survival mechanisms - the tram and monorail re-rezzings being a prime example. I checked the monorail page, and yes, there were some faults today, which have apparently been recovered by the re-rezzer. We have no way of knowing what bugs are coming, but I think we *do* have a way of knowing what features will assist in survival. Re-rezzing, or perhaps we should call it 'death and rebirth' - already defends against a vast class of bugs. What more will come? I suspect variances in generations - if type X is failing, rez Y, or rez Z until one solution can carry forward. Inevitable. Though I suspect the blitters, trams, ducks and slugs will have a bit more of our not-so-divine guidance, until said solutions have become commonplace over time. These 200m ban lines won't change our cultural landscape much - just our technical one. Like the bugs, what they will do is force the evolution of scripted vehicles that allow us to penetrate them, and suppress the creation of physical vehicles of all types. Natural selection in action. Another odd bug.

The nasty bugs are the ones that unexpectedly change behaviour over the course of days, weeks, or months.

This brings up an interesting sort of natural selection that seems to be encroaching.

So - what of our creations? The brittle ones, the ones that cannot suffer the slings and arrows of serendipitous oddness, simply don’t survive.

Those things that do survive, do so with survival mechanisms - the tram and monorail re-rezzings being a prime example. I checked the monorail page, and yes, there were some faults today, which have apparently been recovered by the re-rezzer.

We have no way of knowing what bugs are coming, but I think we *do* have a way of knowing what features will assist in survival.

Re-rezzing, or perhaps we should call it ‘death and rebirth’ - already defends against a vast class of bugs.

What more will come? I suspect variances in generations - if type X is failing, rez Y, or rez Z until one solution can carry forward. Inevitable.

Though I suspect the blitters, trams, ducks and slugs will have a bit more of our not-so-divine guidance, until said solutions have become commonplace over time.

These 200m ban lines won’t change our cultural landscape much - just our technical one. Like the bugs, what they will do is force the evolution of scripted vehicles that allow us to penetrate them, and suppress the creation of physical vehicles of all types. Natural selection in action.

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