Top all-time · #2987
Kory Becker
Personal blog · primaryobjects.com · on HN as primaryobjectsprogrammingaidata
Kory Becker writes Primary Objects, a personal blog at primaryobjects.com about programming, ai and data. Since 2010, 26 different Hacker News readers have linked it 101 times, most often “Using Artificial Intelligence to Write Self-Modifying/Improving Programs (2013)”. The last post was in 2023, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Kory Becker's posts on genetic algorithms and neuroevolution, such as a neural-network Flappy Bird and evolving Brainfuck programs, which are often shared with code.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Software development articles by Kory Becker. Javascript, artificial intelligence, data science, .NET, databases, UI design, web services, and more.
Most-linked posts?
- Using Artificial Intelligence to Write Self-Modifying/Improving Programs (2013)8 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2015-11-29
- Genetic Algorithm "coding" in BF4 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2013-01-29
- AI program learns how to write programs and use functions4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2015-01-05
- Building a Cognitive App with IBM Watson Concept Insights2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2016-02-01
- Using Artificial Intelligence to Write Self-Modifying/Improving Programs2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2015-05-07
- Emotional Artificial Intelligence2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-10-24
- Detecting a Hacked Tweet with Machine Learning2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-10-15
- Creating a Jabber Chatbot that Talks on Gmail with XMPP and AIML2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-05-18
- Mirroring Your Twitter Persona with Intelligence2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-04-28
- Creating Self-Assembling Code with Genetic Programming2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-09-06
What Hacker News says?
"..rather than specify programs precisely, we give examples to an approximate system and hope for the best." I agree with this, as it has the most potential to bring an entirely new paradigm to software development. I've been working on a research project like this, using genetic algorithms to write programs. Unit tests are used to guide the fitness. The AI discovers a solution program that satisfies the test cases.…
Comment linking /2013/01/27/using-artificial-intelligence-to-write-self-modifying-improving-programs/
on “Eve: Programming designed for humans”Submitted Preparing for a Technical Interview: Algorithms and Data Structures as a story · 83 points
HN discussionCheck out this article. Same concept, using genetic programming http://www.primaryobjects.com/CMS/Article149.aspx
Comment linking /CMS/Article149.aspx
on “Show HN: XKCD-inspired StackSort”Submitted Building a Cognitive App with IBM Watson Concept Insights as a story · 15 points
HN discussionhttp://www.primaryobjects.com/CMS/Article149.aspx
Comment linking /CMS/Article149.aspx
on “Show HN: XKCD-inspired StackSort”Submitted Using Artificial Intelligence to Write Self-Modifying/Improving Programs as a story · 12 points
HN discussionI also went with a static site generator during my own blog upgrade and chose Hexo. My tech stack is: Hexo Markdown Node.js Heroku Here is my whole story! http://www.primaryobjects.com/2015/12/15/a-tale-of-migrating...
Comment linking /2015/12/15/a-tale-of-migrating-to-a-static-web-site/
on “Building a personal website in 2021”Submitted An Introduction to Quantum Computing as a story · 10 points
HN discussionThis looks similar to the genetic algorithm technique I used for the AI Programmer project http://www.primaryobjects.com/CMS/Article149.aspx Genetic algorithms (and variants) can pick up some very interesting patterns for achieving the target fitness. I don't think this is necessarily anything new, and GAs have their limitations, but applying them to multiple NES games is impressive. I'm convinced that GAs will be a…
Comment linking /CMS/Article149.aspx
on “Programmer Creates An AI To (Not Quite) Beat NES Games”Submitted Intelligent Topic Detection with Unsupervised Learning as a story · 8 points
HN discussionAhh yes, this is very interesting although I agree with many of the posters here that the model is probably too simplistic even for demo purposes. For programmers there are even more striking examples of AI out there, complete with code, documentation and explanations. Check this out: http://www.primaryobjects.com/2013/01/27/using-artificial-in... In me this sparked a months long fascination with genetic algorithms…
Comment linking /2013/01/27/using-artificial-intelligence-to-write-self-modifying-improving-programs/
on “NeuroEvolution – Flappy Bird”Submitted AI program learns how to write programs and use functions as a story · 7 points
HN discussionI tend to agree. There is an awful lot of media hype over AI and not enough context. For anyone interested, here is a recent presentation I gave on Watson and a summary of what it can do. IBM Watson: Building a Cognitive App with Concept Insights http://www.primaryobjects.com/2016/02/01/ibm-watson-building...
Comment linking /2016/02/01/ibm-watson-building-a-cognitive-app/
on “Watson for President”Submitted Developing a Game for the Echo with Amazon Alexa as a story · 6 points
HN discussionhttps://arxiv.org/abs/1709.05703 is the best one which is explained in these blog posts http://www.primaryobjects.com/2013/01/27/using-artificial-in...
Comment linking /2013/01/27/using-artificial-intelligence-to-write-self-modifying-improving-programs/
on “Fun facts about Rust's growing popularity”Submitted Genetic Algorithm "coding" in BF as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSome people frown upon training neural networks with genetic algorithms, just because gen algs are so random and hard to dissect. I think it's silly to discard anything that is a potential solution to a problem. I go by a rule of thumb like this: - If you are able to collect lots of training data (inputs and valid outputs) then use back-propagation. It's faster and you might get better results. - If you don't know t…
Comment linking /CMS/Article105.aspx
on “Hacking Flappy Bird with Machine Learning”Submitted Self-Programming Artificial Intelligence Learns to Use Functions as a story · 4 points
HN discussionHere are the results of my research into program synthesis using genetic algorithms. Using Artificial Intelligence to Write Self-Modifying/Improving Programs http://www.primaryobjects.com/2013/01/27/using-artificial-in... There is always a research paper, if you prefer the sciency format. BF-Programmer: A Counterintuitive Approach to Autonomously Building Simplistic Programs Using Genetic Algorithms http://www.prima…
Comment linking /bf-programmer-2017.pdf
on “The future of deep learning”Submitted Detecting a Hacked Tweet with Machine Learning as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThe paper references program synthesis via neural networks. Here is my take on it, using genetic algorithms. http://www.primaryobjects.com/2013/01/27/using-artificial-in...
Comment linking /2013/01/27/using-artificial-intelligence-to-write-self-modifying-improving-programs/
on “The Google Brain Team – Looking Back on 2016”Submitted Creating a Simple Paint App with HTML5 Canvas and Javascript as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI run hexo on a blog of almost 100 articles. Great platform btw. It takes about 20s to generate. Here's my review of migrating to hexo http://www.primaryobjects.com/2015/12/15/a-tale-of-migrating...
Comment linking /2015/12/15/a-tale-of-migrating-to-a-static-web-site/
on “Is Self Hosted Blogging Dead?”Submitted Using Artificial Intelligence to Write Self-Modifying/Improving Programs (2013) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAre you referring to something like this? Using Artificial Intelligence to Write Self-Modifying/Improving Programs http://www.primaryobjects.com/2013/01/27/using-artificial-in...
Comment linking /2013/01/27/using-artificial-intelligence-to-write-self-modifying-improving-programs/
on “Mark Cuban on Why You Need to Study Artificial Intelligence”Submitted Using Artificial Intelligence to Write Self-Modifying/Improving Programs as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThis looks a lot like STRIPS planning http://www.primaryobjects.com/2015/11/06/artificial-intellig... The Ceptre tutorial even has the classic example of moving blocks on a table. It's a different language than STRIPS (using PDDL), but seems a similar idea.
Comment linking /2015/11/06/artificial-intelligence-planning-with-strips-a-gentle-introduction/
on “Programming Interactive Worlds with Linear Logic”Submitted An Introduction to AI Automated Planning with STRIPS as a story · 3 points
HN discussionHave you seen this project yet? I only thought of this link while reading the last part of your sentence (the AI writes a program with very similar output). Self-Programming Artificial Intelligence Learns to Use Functions http://www.primaryobjects.com/CMS/Article163
Comment linking /CMS/Article163
on “Machine Learning for Programming – Peter Norvig”Submitted IBM Watson: Building a Cognitive App with Concept Insights as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
