Disembodied characters
Name
44869964-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
9.75 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8f46c7c9a260a55faa45b548186a06ed
Author(s)
Hlavac, Michal, 1974-
Advisor(s)
Bruce Mitchell Blumberg.
Date Issued
1999
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
A colony of social insects as a whole can be regarded as an organism that reproduces, maintains its internal structure, and survives in a hostile an unpredictable environment. Such superorganism - an entity that consists of smaller component organisms - is able to perform remarkable feats, decentralized information processing among them. For instance, a swarm of bees is able to choose the best possible nesting cavity even though only a few of the individuals have any knowledge of the available sites, and no single bee has a full knowledge of the situation. This decentralized decision making is remarkably similar to that performed by hypothetical functional agents, frequently featured in decentralist theories of the human mind. In this thesis I argue that comparing a superorganism to the mind is useful. In particular, this comparison opens up an enchanting opportunity for the creation of expressive synthetic characters that may become important incremental stepping stones on the way to complex artificial intelligence. In order to explore the space between metaphors - the human mind as a collection of interconnected mindless agents, and the superorganism as a unitary whole that exhibits functional characteristics beyond those of its component parts - I present the design and implementation of the Mask of the Hive, a character that is based on a model of a bee colony. My emphasis lies on graphic design and information visualization in order to develop a set of visuals that are informative, expressive, and artistically satisfying.
Description
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, September 1999.
"August 1999."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-73).
Subjects
Architecture. Program In Media Arts and Sciences.
MIT Department
Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
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copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but
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