[HN Gopher] Show HN: Dosidicus - A digital pet with a simple neu...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Show HN: Dosidicus - A digital pet with a simple neural network
        
       Author : vicioussquid
       Score  : 28 points
       Date   : 2025-04-22 20:06 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | vicioussquid wrote:
       | What if a Tamagotchi had a neural network and could learn stuff?
       | 
       | A digital pet squid that also teaches how neural networks and
       | hebbian learning work. Behaviours are driven by the neural
       | network according to his needs:
       | 
       | https://github.com/ViciousSquid/Dosidicus
       | 
       | I spent AGES on this and would love feedback. I think it's just
       | the right balance of educational and fun. I did all the graphics
       | myself and am currently working on multiplayer - squids will be
       | able top enter other tanks and steal things, bring them home
        
         | goldfeld wrote:
         | What if our todo list/commits/issue tracker could affect the
         | blob and bloat could kill him? no?
         | 
         | This might also see a long shelf life, say, as familiars of
         | fantasy rpgs, as pets from a fictionalized world-building
         | narrative online; I guess it could be so for any LLM in
         | principle, but the basic Sims-like gamification behind a
         | tamagotchi seems like a solid foundation for those usecases.
        
       | danielbln wrote:
       | This looks great! Have you seen any emergent behaviors from the
       | squids that you didn't expect?
       | 
       | I'll give this a go on the weekend, might be a fun way to intro
       | NN to kids as well.
        
         | Grimblewald wrote:
         | If this interests you, have a look at "bibits" as well, its a
         | whole neural network driven ecosystem where each critter has a
         | brain that can evolve over generations. Emergent behaviour like
         | prey/predator species arise over time. Its honestly a really
         | cool tool / toybox for budding scientists.
        
       | 1024core wrote:
       | > What if a Tamagotchi had a neural network and could learn
       | stuff?
       | 
       | What if this was actually a Tamagochi? Anyone have ideas?
        
         | nine_k wrote:
         | Tamagochi had a very limited way to interact with the
         | environment, because it was an egg (tamago,Luan ) with a
         | creature (chi) inside. It had needs like food and play, but
         | could only receive care, and adjust its state a little bit.
         | 
         | This squid can interact with the environment in many ways,
         | hence it can learn new stuff, and maybe do new stuff.
        
           | DigiEggz wrote:
           | The name is a portmanteau of tamago (tamago, egg) and uotchi
           | (uotsuchi, watch). The original product was even sometimes
           | written as "tamagotch" in some media.
        
       | cogburnd02 wrote:
       | You really ought to watch the Black Mirror episode Plaything.
       | It's about digital pets with a neural network interacting with a
       | human played by Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who) and the outcomes that
       | might result from this.
        
         | blueprint wrote:
         | also worth a look - The Lifecycle of Software Objects -
         | https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lifecycle_of_Software_Objects
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-04-22 23:00 UTC)