Show HN: Dosidicus – A digital pet with a simple neural network
13 comments
·April 22, 2025vicioussquid
goldfeld
What if our todo list/commits/issue tracker could affect the blob and bloat could kill him? no?
This might also see a long shelf life, say, as familiars of fantasy rpgs, as pets from a fictionalized world-building narrative online; I guess it could be so for any LLM in principle, but the basic Sims-like gamification behind a tamagotchi seems like a solid foundation for those usecases.
cogburnd02
You really ought to watch the Black Mirror episode Plaything. It’s about digital pets with a neural network interacting with a human played by Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who) and the outcomes that might result from this.
blueprint
also worth a look - The Lifecycle of Software Objects - https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lifecycle_of_Software_Objects
_dark_matter_
Exactly what I thought of. Everyone should read Exhalation.
danielbln
This looks great! Have you seen any emergent behaviors from the squids that you didn't expect?
I'll give this a go on the weekend, might be a fun way to intro NN to kids as well.
ethan_smith
Even simple neural networks with Hebbian learning can produce surprising emergent behaviors when their inputs and reward systems interact in unexpected ways - I'd be curious to see if the squid develops any quirky preferences or avoidance patterns after extended training.
Grimblewald
If this interests you, have a look at "bibits" as well, its a whole neural network driven ecosystem where each critter has a brain that can evolve over generations. Emergent behaviour like prey/predator species arise over time. Its honestly a really cool tool / toybox for budding scientists.
null
gitroom
I think this is wild, the idea of a digital pet actually learning like that kinda blows my mind - you ever wonder if stuff like this could get too smart for its own good?
1024core
> What if a Tamagotchi had a neural network and could learn stuff?
What if this was actually a Tamagochi? Anyone have ideas?
nine_k
Tamagochi had a very limited way to interact with the environment, because it was an egg (tamago,卵) with a creature (chi) inside. It had needs like food and play, but could only receive care, and adjust its state a little bit.
This squid can interact with the environment in many ways, hence it can learn new stuff, and maybe do new stuff.
DigiEggz
The name is a portmanteau of tamago (たまご, egg) and uotchi (ウオッチ, watch). The original product was even sometimes written as "tamagotch" in some media.
What if a Tamagotchi had a neural network and could learn stuff?
A digital pet squid that also teaches how neural networks and hebbian learning work. Behaviours are driven by the neural network according to his needs:
https://github.com/ViciousSquid/Dosidicus
I spent AGES on this and would love feedback. I think it's just the right balance of educational and fun. I did all the graphics myself and am currently working on multiplayer - squids will be able top enter other tanks and steal things, bring them home