Saturday, July 01, 2006

Zen Cat

I've not really had any time to blog recently. However, I am getting some reading done and I've redesigned my design website. Moving Sky

It includes a link to my latest project - a talking cat that studies Zen (under construction). I'm hoping to have him animated in the future. Zen Cat

Let me know your thoughts.

6 comments:

  1. I can't reach your cat! Lovely idea, I can imagine it must be a whole lot of work to put something like that together.
    I clicked the 'zencat' link and a new window popped up, but it was blank...and I also went to your movingsky page (very nice presentation, esp. the cloud:). I clicked the "talk" button and was taken to the same blank page...

    It's a great idea for a project, my husband had a chuckle too when I showed him your prototype.

    A true labor of love...well done.

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  2. Hi Gaelin,

    Thanks for your feedback. The problem was I was trying to be too clever - as usual. But without getting into detail, you should be able to access him now.

    http://www.movingsky.co.uk/zenCat/

    I'd appreciate your interaction with him and any futher feedback.

    Thanks again,

    Justin

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  3. That's great! I accessed him and had a decidedly strange conversation...
    Ever considered doing a zen cat comic strip? E-zine sort of format? Maybe the readers can then click a link to chat directly with zencat? Might be a good way of distributing the work.

    The whole concept is wonderful. Can't imagine how you're programming it all, but it's definately going in the right direction...

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  4. Yes, conversations will be strange - because of limitations of the artificial intelligence. I thought the reputation that Zen masters have for saying strange things would allow people to tolerate such strangeness more.

    I'm now tending towards the idea of having set animations on different topics which could be accessed by button-click. The chat could even be a secondary function as you say.

    Most of the programming work is already done - I'm just customising it with a Zen flavour. Also I was considering making him a dog instead - he could be called Dogen or Joshu 'Does a dog have buddha nature?' ha ha

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  5. Anonymous2:45 am

    that's a really cool program, sometimes it seems like a real "person",although when trying to talk about zen, it got pretty strange. I really wonder how it is done, and i hope you can continue, and evolve the a/i.
    well keep up the good work.

    --captain crisco

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  6. Well, I'm hoping that a few people will talk to it, so that I can use conversations as a basis for training. His 'Zen program' is very basic. However, I'm so busy at the moment I hardly have time to write in my blog let alone reprogram my Zen Cat.

    Please keep talking!

    Do you think a Cat is better or a Dog?

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