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Messages - apothegm

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Off Topic / Two arguments that give the creationists the upper hand.
« on: February 13, 2008, 12:37:00 AM »
This is quite a contentious topic, and there's been some good discussion here... I've enjoyed reading it and I feel like I know some of the DB forum posters a lot better now   .  To throw in my own two-cents-worth:

I consider myself a scientist, and it seems to me that the scientific method is the most productive and effective paradigm to use in interacting with the universe. I also think that the act of "believing", of maintaining a conviction despite the lack of any observations supporting it and despite the presence of observations that would tend to counter it, is highly dangerous. However, there can be great value in things that are outside of the realm of science, like myths, stories, and symbols. Science has many uses, but when you're trying to figure out what you need in your life to make you happy or what movie to see tonight, science has very little to offer. As such, when the bible has stories about virgin births or resurrections, it doesn't mean you should dismiss them as scientifically innaccurate and therefore false, but instead look at them as symbols that have helped to shape our culture and our identities, and can serve as common reference-points that allow us to relate to one another more effectively. In a way, our lives as we subjectively experience them can be reduced to stories, and so it makes sense that all kinds of stories help to shape our perceptions.
Take, for example EricL's post about the DarwinBots bar (which I love btw). It's difficult to quantify or measure the utility of this piece, and the characters of the bartender, the old sage, and the escaped mental patient are certainly symbolic rather than literal, but reading it has without a doubt enriched my experience here.
If only fewer people would try to take our myths so literally...

And of course, these views would be completely out of place in a scientific discussion    .

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Newbie / greeting and newbie question
« on: January 28, 2008, 05:10:48 AM »
thanks for the info! I've been running my first simulation and have seen some behaviors develop, it's pretty rewarding.

Another question... I keep running into an error when I start a new sim, and when dna files get loaded to repopulate the sim with veggies when they're under the threshold.  it says "error: 's dna hashing incorrect - ignoring parameters". it comes up a bunch of times and I just click through it and it seems to work fine, but the problem is when it needs to repopulate veggies in the middle of the sim. it seems like maybe it's trying to load a blank dna file? I'm guessing there's an easy way around it but I haven't figured it out. anyone know? thanks.

Oh, and also, about what volume of data is transferred in internet mode? I'm on a strict 200 meg/day download cap... I'm guessing DB wouldn't cut into much, probably just a few megs/day at most. is this about right?

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Newbie / greeting and newbie question
« on: January 16, 2008, 08:16:59 PM »
Hi, all, just got into DB... I'd downloaded it before, years ago, but never got into it, now I think I'm starting to get a handle on it. right now I'm running my first simulation with the first bot I wrote...
so here's a question I ran into: it seems like the different positions in memory have different sizes? I know that .nrg can go up to 32000, but .repro is a range from 1-100 right? and I can't figure out the range of .eye.
am I right in thinking this? and is there a way to find out what the meaningful range is for all of the variables?
I'd appreciate help with this.
it seems like this is a great community and I look forward to evolving some interesting bots. Thanks!

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