So, I’ve written a python-based MUC-aware Jabber bot framework, using XMPPpy. If anyone would be interested in using or improving this, please let me know. I want it to be of use to people, like a Jabbery version of your IRC-bot framework of choice. It is currently instantiated only as Tyche, my dicerolling bot for tabletop RPGs online (who also provides some snark when people are predictable in the gaming rooms). But the more uses it finds, the moar betterer it gets, right?
As usual, BLDGBLOG blows my mind. Skim over all the word-clouds—those are old-hat by now—and take a look at the last two paragraphs of the post. The idea of making room clouds is great, but what it sparks in my mind is even more interesting, to me: the idea of serializing architecture. If you could find a good encoding for architecture, you could use all sorts of existing techniques to play with large amounts of architectural data. I am thinking, particularly, of using genetic algorithms to grow building designs that are highly fit for various purposes; that would require a good fitness algorithm, too, but seriously, the field of computational architecture is untapped!
So how would one serialize a building? I suspect that the work of Karl Sims is not irrelevant; serializing a building is a lot like serializing a creature. The only difference for use in a genetic algorithm is the fitness function, which for a creature is based on reproductive ability before total energy loss, but for a building… well, that’s the question, isn’t it? Clearly it would have a number of factors: safety, efficiency for purpose, pleasantness.
What would you think was important to a building’s fitness?