Language Evolution Simulation
Learning and science
agent-based simulation
SHOW HN2016
How HN took it
4 positive, 9 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 3 critical, out of 16 comments about the project. Thread score +0.12.
Idea: 2 for, 1 againstPerformance: 0 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Cool and interesting idea
From 3 comments
This is really cool.
instakill on HNcool
zet2 on HNI was about to write my thesis on a simulation like this, agents would need to evolve a syntax to survive (not just words like in the simulation above). It truly is a fascinating…
jtwaleson on HN
Objections
Word changes are simple character replacements rather than realistic sound change
From 2 comments
Can you explain a little more about what you're trying to simulate and why you chose the model that you did? Also... did you consider using known sound change processes?…
DanielStraight on HNHi, Sorry for the lack of explanation. it was a fun project. I wanted to simulate agents who talking and learning new words from themselves. Each island has 12 agents, and there…
fatiherikli on HN
Requests
Use real languages as the word source
From 2 comments
It would be interesting if the words from the different islands came from existing languages, for instance (and for myself) I would put French, Portuguese and English, to have…
wazari972 on HNYou can pick words from the most common in a given language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_common_words_in_English…
DeusExMachina on HN
Add sliders for exchange rate and mutation rate
From 1 comment
It would be more understandable and educational if your simulation had the following: - A way of visually indicating the divergence between languages. Minimal differences are…
eevilspock on HN
Show sample agent conversations
From 1 comment
Nice demo! Feature request: I'd like to see the people talking, like display sentence of a random pair of agents, every 10 sec e.g. That way I would feel immersed into users…
mdup on HN
Color agents by divergence from native vocabulary
From 1 comment
This is really cool. I wonder if there were a way to show variances of individual agents - perhaps by calculating the difference of their current vocabulary from their native…
CWuestefeld on HN
Questions
What is being simulated and why this model
From 1 comment
Can you explain a little more about what you're trying to simulate and why you chose the model that you did? Also... did you consider using known sound change processes?…
DanielStraight on HN
Alternatives named
Mesa agent-based framework
From 1 comment
I know Mesa. Python based, open-source framework for agent-based models. https://github.com/projectmesa/mesa
fatiherikli on HN
Insight Maker
From 1 comment
https://insightmaker.com/ perhaps?
CuriousSkeptic on HN
NetLogo
From 1 comment
There's netlogo, a multi-agent modeling language. It's not quite what you're asking for, and it's not too stable, but it comes pre-loaded with at least starter code for almost…
iwannayoyo on HN