This is a log of random thoughts that will be updated occasionally with ideas. I have always believed that no idea is useless, it just might not be right for the situation at that time or place. Some of what is written here will be useless, some crazy, some brilliant, and some completely idiotic. But it is more fun if it is all written down so people can see the process by which a project comes to fruition. Just remember... it is ALWAYS a work in progress of partial thoughts and unrealized realities.

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I was considering the prospect of recharging, and had this thought. What if instead of a central base station at a central location we teach PAL to seek out designated outlets around the house and plug itself into these outlets. They could be marked, or a different color, or some other thing to set them apart as "safe food". This would require charging circuitry to be on board of course. I wonder if I should see if PAL can figure this one out by itself. Perhaps give it the instinct of "ingest" much like any animal knows to put food in its mouth to eat. PAL will know it has a charging cable (mouth) but not know what to do with it until it maps this information itself. Could be fun... or frustrating XD

I was also thinking about the motivation system. Perhaps in order to keep PAL interested in travel, we include a quota of data somewhere. I can call this instinct "Curiosity". The more curiosity that PAL fulfills learning new things the happier PAL gets. How does this happiness work? Well, it is basically just a number on a sliding scale, which is compared to other numbers on different emotional scales. Through the use of some simple algebra we can determine the primary and secondary moods. These moods will help dictate responses in the system. Finding ways to create a meaningful balance between emotion and functionality is like walking a tightrope. Humans have been doing it since the dawn of human existence... and even we still screw it up and get our wires crossed :P