h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Some mistakes that I found as I read through the entry... Nothing is factually wrong, because I was careful to correct that, but...


“The Player, the Norns, and Albia”

>>>The players representation in the world is a hand, which the Norns look to as a parent. There is more on how the hand does it's job later!<<<

-should be-

The player’s representation in the world is a hand, which the Norns look to as a parent. There is more on how the hand does its job later.




“Norn/Hand/Environment Interactions”

>>>The Hands' interactions with the world is like the god of that world. The Hand can tell everyone what to do, and expects to be obeyed. When the Hand isn't obeyed after a few repetitions, it might become angry and might punish the disobedient with a smack on the rump or a sharp 'no', both of which produce the same effect: an increase in the punishment toxin. Norns decide whether to listen or not, and actually learn from being punished and rewarded - for instance, if a Norn is smacked whenever he eats, he will eventually stop eating (and thus die). This also works with less obvious punishments, such as playing with a certain toy. Learning is helpful to the Hand as well, because through it the Hand can teach her Norns not to do harmful things, such as eating the weeds which can kill them and so reduce it's workload.<<<

-should be-

The Hand is like the god of the Creatures’ world. The Hand can tell everyone what to do, and expects to be obeyed. When the Hand isn't obeyed after a few repetitions, it might become angry and might punish the disobedient with a smack on the rump or a sharp 'no', both of which produce the same effect: an increase in the punishment toxin. Norns decide whether to listen or not, and actually learn from being punished and rewarded - for instance, if a Norn is smacked whenever he eats, he will eventually stop eating (and thus die). This also works with less obvious punishments, such as playing with a certain toy. Learning is helpful to the Hand as well, because through it the Hand can teach her Norns not to do harmful things, such as eating the weeds which can kill them.



“And the Point is?”

>>>Many people set goals for themselves, such as raising always-fertile Norns. Some people try to breed uniquely coloured Norns, or Norns that live a long time or Norns that are fertile a longer percentage of their lifespan (By recording the names of early bloomers and then breeding them together. Some people have achieved surprising reductions so it is not an unrealistic goal.) These are all decent goals, but by no means the only ones.<<<

-should be-

Many people set goals for themselves, such as raising always-fertile Norns. Some people try to breed uniquely coloured Norns, or Norns that live a long time, or Norns that are fertile for a longer percentage of their lifespan. By recording the names of early bloomers and then breeding them together, some people have achieved surprising reductions--this is not an unrealistic goal.





What is the point of that last link (to “Creatures - the Computer Series”)?--it links *to* the same entry that it links *from*. Should that be for A643808 (my original entry)... Otherwise, I don’t have any idea why it is there.



Thank you all so much for your work.

Fixed - thanks for the feedback - when it is presented like this it makes our work that little bit easier

Welcome... I know you have better things to be doing.

Thanks again
Shee

Hmm... the random unwanted link at the bottom is still there, unless 'm missing some hugely subtle point about it being self-referential... grin...

I finished reading the book - hmm, have you seen Steve Grand's website? 'S quite... er... interesting, grin, certainly worth a look.

I'll definitely be playing with artificial life type things in future programming projects, 's a minor hobby of mine... hopefully having read about how Creatures was done I'll be able to have 'em more closely modelled on the real thing, which might prove interesting...

Who knows, grin...

26199

*grin*