Tuesday, June 28, 2011

EVO



Evo 0.9 is my implementation of a genetic evolutionary algorithm for mimicking an image using only unnatural selection and random triangles.




It is based on the sort of software below:



Evo is made in Java 6 and the Jar (i.e. executable) can be downloaded here.


Configuration options are:
Resolution (pixels) - Since using the original resolution of a big image normally results in extremely slow behaviour, I've added this option. For example if this is set to 1000000 (i.e. 1 million) it will resize the image to 1 megapixel and evolve based on the resized image.
Number of Triangles - Total number of triangles used in the image.
Number of Threads - Number of threads used (I normally use one per CPU core).
Generation size - As there I am only using mutations, then this variable does not make much sense. However, the script will stop optmizing once the improvement is below 0.001% in one given generation. (So basically the bigger this number, the more demanding the software will be)


If you want to download, get more information or contribute, then consider looking at the forum:
http://forum.feiteira.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=8

To simply download, use:
http://forum.feiteira.org/attachment.php?aid=1

Friday, June 3, 2011

TMS: Deactivating brain parts, makes it more powerful?!?



The research of a test in which a research subject was asked to draw a picture of a
dog four times, at different stages of his exposure to transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Found this interesting links while reading The Singularity is Near from Ray Kurzweil:

Savant for a day (https://wireheading.com/brainstim/savant.html)
Shows that maybe Savant syndrome can be induced.

TMS: Twilight Zone Science (https://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2002/04/51699)
A bit more detailed than the above, but still worth the reading.
"The technology at the core of professor Allan Snyder's experiments to boost creative intelligence,transcranial magnetic stimulation, is behind some pretty wacky claims. Subjects in experiments byDr. Michael Persinger, of Laurentian University, believe they felt the presence of God, or some similar mystical experience." - www.wired.com 04.18.02

Added that to some searches and found these below. I find the combined knowledge to be mind blowing :)


Jason Padgett - Brutal Attack results in Savant Syndrome






NOTE BELOW / ADDENDUM 2018.11
While reading Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer, I discovered that Daniel Tammet is more of a high-tech fraud than a Savant.  It's hard to explain, but proof comes from his own web-site in 2001.  Where he states: 
"My own interest in memory and conversely Memory sport was sparked by my casual acquaintance with a children’s book on broad memory concepts for better exam performance at the age of 15. The following year I passed my GCSEs with some of the year’s best results and subsequently performed well at A-level, mastering French and German along the way with the help of these tried-and-tested techniques.Following teaching stints in Scandinavia and as a volunteer lecturer of English in Eastern Europe, I competed for the first time at the World Memory Championships in London in 1999, managing 12th place overall."
It's weird and enlighthing that his mental prowesses is more interessing as an accident than as an hard work achievement.
Full link to his web-site on archive.org.
END NOTE

Daniel Tammet - The Boy With The Incredible Brain