vicioussquid 12 hours ago

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 11 hours ago

    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.

cogburnd02 10 hours ago

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.

danielbln 12 hours ago

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 10 hours ago

    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.

  • ethan_smith 6 hours ago

    Even simple neural networks with Hebbian learning can produce surprising emergent behaviors when their inputs and reward systems interact in unexpected ways - I'd be curious to see if the squid develops any quirky preferences or avoidance patterns after extended training.

1024core 11 hours ago

> What if a Tamagotchi had a neural network and could learn stuff?

What if this was actually a Tamagochi? Anyone have ideas?

  • nine_k 11 hours ago

    Tamagochi had a very limited way to interact with the environment, because it was an egg (tamago,卵) 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 11 hours ago

      The name is a portmanteau of tamago (たまご, egg) and uotchi (ウオッチ, watch). The original product was even sometimes written as "tamagotch" in some media.

gitroom 7 hours ago

I think this is wild, the idea of a digital pet actually learning like that kinda blows my mind - you ever wonder if stuff like this could get too smart for its own good?