Research and development in AI is an interesting concept. First off, there hasn't been much noticeable progress in AI since the 80s. Considering the fact that AI is an O(n^2) problem and computers have grown in computing power exponentially since then, one might think that progress would be outrageous. Growing up from a kid easily impressed into the harsh world where practicality and simplicity rules has taught me a bit of scepticism. When reading an article, I look for signs of flakiness, lies, and so on. When someone gives a plan that sounds too good to be true, I take a look at the numbers and I decide not to risk my reputation by supporting it vocally. But there's still something deep in my mind that doesn't want to give up on the idea that a solution to the big problems exists. It's happened before, it'll happen again. Maybe that's why I want to write video games: when I control the physics and the plot, I can just say: it is so, so let's do it. The reality of the world is that big breakthroughs come after massive investments of time and energy (including waste) on things that do and do not work. It simply will not happen if we aren't working on it. So I think it's a good thing that I have a nearly inexhaustible supply of curiosity into the cool and interesting. But simply researching things that are cool and interesting is not nearly enough. R&D into topics that are not giving results to other researchers where you might have some insight is a requirement of progress.
So I've been working on some simple AI. Really all I've written is just the infrastructure necessary for the code I really want to write. But once done the system should be pretty easy to work with. I was able to test a cops and robbers simulation at approx. realtime. That's useful. When I write an intelligent robber or cop, I'll know because they'll be more "clever" than their opponents. I wrote a short essay on how to reimplement that so that it would be more stable, so I'm slowing going to do that.
Today I did some interesting work with SVG. I have an idea to use librsvg with libart and libxml2 to create a system that renders SVG efficiently on certain platforms for procedural rendering. I have a bunch of projects that seem to require SVG, so I'm glad to have made some progress on it today. It's a rather premature plan, so I won't recount my chickens for you. I'll simply tell you what I found today.
April 15, 2006
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Temples are a social, recreational, and spiritual place to visit in Japan. They carry history, culture, religion, and sights that draw tourists, frequent visitors, and religious people. If you can't find one, you're probably not looking. They are indeed everywhere. You can actually walk from Tokyo Tower to the Imperial Palace and further to the Yasakuni Temple via temples. The closest temple to my residence was Senso-ji, only 4 short blocks, which made it a common place to visit. Even though it wasn't my favorite place, it was up there just because it is such a sweet place.
The first time I went to the Senso-ji was on a Saturday during one of their festivals. I forgot my camera, so I didn't get a picture of the young kids dressed in swan hats. There's a lot of interesting stuff there besides the two temples, and souvenir shops. For one, the pond is excellent. It's so long that it has a few bridges over it.
There are a lot of people there and you're likely to find Japanese beauties posing for photos wearing yukata. Most temples that I saw were both Buddhist and Shinto. Wikipedia clears this up, saying that the 6 story temple is a Shinto shrine, Asakusa Jinja and the other is a Buddhist shrine, Senso-ji. Senso-ji has quite a few interesting pieces of culture. 1) Buddhists gathering to pray for virtues, 2) tourists taking in the sights, and 3) people going there to hang out. To compare these three culture items with America is slightly embarassing. Shrines are very nifty and there are plenty of religious people in Japan. The structure of the temples are much more open than churches are. There are plenty of interesting things for tourists to see in the various temples of Japan. Compared to shopping malls, temples are excellent place to hang out. If you'd like to argue the qualities of American spots, feel free to e-mail me.
There are a few things that a Japanese person will tell you about visiting a temple. Most importantly, if you want to pray, go right ahead. The idea is walk up the stairs, throw a coin into the box (optional), bow toward the shrine, pray, and then clap your hands lightly to finish. I'm not sure what the deal is, but it seems like a pretty simple way to pray. The next thing to think about is the incense or water. A temple might have incense burning. Just grab a few pieces of smoke to clean yourself from evil. Some temples have water. You take the dipper, wash one hand, switch hands, then pour a handful of water to rinse your mouth. This system is to ensure that people that go to the temple are fairly clean (from dirt and evil). The last thing is the mikuji, which is a Shinto tradition which is fortune paper sold for upkeep of a shrine. You'll probably need someone to translate it. For example, the one I got at the shrine at tallest spot in Tokyo said that I had medium luck in life, decent business, and if I was interested in love, to keep my thoughts on personality instead of beauty. Good advice and the fortune was pretty spot on.
