Friday, December 13, 2013

Genetic Algorithm Breeds cars

I let this genetic algorithm run a few nights in a row to breed the "fittest" car for this course.  The difference between two nights isn't as dramatic as from the beginning.  The cars started pretty squat and then turned out spiky, and then rearranged he spikes a little.  I think that the spikes help when the cars tumble to let them right themselves again.  It may also have to do with weight distribution.






3402 generations in human terms is about 85,000 years, so these cars have gone from hunter gatherers living in caves to spaceflight.  Although really they have just gotten pretty successful at running this course.  The best performance ever was around 1000 generations and they have just been spinning wheels since then.



Monday, December 09, 2013

Snow at the beginning and towards the end

at first it seemed like a few beautiful flakes were going to cover some rocks in the creek and it would be done soon.

Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Chrysanthemum Festival has passed

Did you get to see the chrysanthemums at Longwood gardens before they were done?

My god, it's full of chrysanthemums.