TOBI

From ARG Guide/Trail Wiki

The program was meant to be a search bot filled with artificial intelligence.  The artificial intelligence was extremely predictable and boring.  Jude Williams wanted to expand on the idea to Genetic Algorithms. GA is a search method based on population of solutions. The more advanced solutions will be selected to be parents of the next generation.  The more advanced selected parents will be improved using so called genetic operators. So the results became the next generation's population.  This cycle repeats until the answer is found or some criteria is accomplished.  Unfortunately Genetic Algorithms was not enough.  So the trio decided the program can start as an Extremely Autonomous Agent. An Extremely Autonomous Agent is a hybrid expert system neural network AI with genetic algorithm "growth" capabilities.  Much research was done to get information on the Neural Network and Expert Systems and TOBI was born.

TOBI stands for Technically Obtaining Better Information. Or at least that's what the guys agreed upon after naming him TOBI. TOBI really is named for his artificial intelligence that Jude filled him with. Early on TOBI was showing some characteristics, especially for survival. He was self re-writing to help him overcome obstacles. Yet his parameters only allowed his program to be 22 megs or smaller (Jude did this because the larger the program the more chance for failure). So he re-wrote his basic rules to prevent system crash. This is not completely unheard of, but rare. The most basic rules are not to be over-written, it does happen sometimes, but the computer world calls them "miracles". Marty was so surprised when he heard the program he did his best "Mr. Roboto" impression and said, "I bot." Saying the program had a mind of its own. The trio called him TOBI, and TOBI is "I bot" spelled backwards.

The news page and the history page from Ideltech discuss Tobi.