YemSalat

Facebook provides the API which can be accessed with various languages. The facebook 'like' button on some website uses the same API which the sims game is using.

That depends on what you're after. Are you going to develop your own proprietary plugin technology?

Programming itself has nothing to do with usability. It does not involve the user in any way. I am sorry if you do not realize the difference between game programming and game design.

Yes, but it is much more about programming rather then games.

Yep, all my questions have been answered, thanks everybody! Plus I got some keywords from Ringer's post for later study on the subject.

No, what I meant is that on the stage of creating the database you will not be able to apply emotions to certain entries, which may influence the future response.

Thanks for your clarifications! It all makes much more sense now. iNow, not sure why you had to switch it to my family tree instead of cows Well, I did not mean myself in that case, but my genes store information about the exact location where my arm needs to be developed. So does it mean that all the adaptation, for example when species are introduced to a new habitat is based on completely random mutations which will then be sorted out by natural selection?

To be honest me and most of my friends already had some CS knowledge before starting the course. However we all found the first year really boring because it was all about beginners stuff. Usually all the courses are aimed at people who don't know much about programming, so I think you should be fine. Another question is - do you really want to do it? It can be crazy interesting if you are really into the subject, but it can be crazy boring as well if its not your thing. I think this is what you need to consider the most.

So there is no way an eye (or genes, or the creature - all metaphorical) can 'know' that the screen should be transparent? And while I am here, I always wanted to know if this is true - they used to say that if you take a cow and pull its left eye off, then pull its cub's left eye off, then its cub's cub's eye off and so on and so on.. Eventually over a number of generations you will get a cow with only one right eye. Do you think it could be true? Does it mean that genes have an influence from external conditions?

Oh, I remember my assignments.. At least they let you chose the topic! I'd rather make some game or a suicide booth analog from futurama. Use your imagination

If you decided to study CS because you were inspired by video games - I think you've chosen the wrong field. Programmers in the video game industry don't do much (or even anything) that is relevant to the game except for the code. Perhaps you should have chosen a game design course? That's where you get to create a game, relying on the existing code. But it is more centered around the aspects of the game such as - storyline, AI, game mechanics, game world, etc.

What is your current degree? (I assume you are from United States)

Don't want to break it for you, but we re light years away from even completely understanding how a brain works, leave lone creting a software that would simulate the processes. And again, as was mentioned earlier it is not as much about the database of information, but more of the way to make decisions based on this information. Plus, bear in mind that not all types of information that may influence your decisions can be 'taken down' stuff like emotions are currently only available to living creatures.

I do realize that it takes a lot of generations for the actual changes to occur. Do you mean there was a process of trial and error with a transparent and completely non-transparent screen that took place?

Yes, but how does this information about the screen gets into the genes in the first place? I mean how does the creature 'know' that the screen needs to let the light in (be it cloudy or clear), otherwise the eye would stop functioning. Does it mean that genes have the 'knowledge' of the eye and what it is for and how it works? I might be asking something completely irrelevant, I apologize. If my ignorance is obvious to you, please provide some resources that I can read on the subject.

So basically it is the same explanation that I gave in my second post. It is all very reasonable. The question however is slightly different, I am not asking how did the lens appear. What I am asking is (in a nutshell) - how does the eye 'know' that the protection screen from which the lens evolved should be transparent? Is the answer - random mutation preserved by natural selection?

iNow, I've seen that video and it actually produced the original question with which I came to this forum. If the answer is right there in the video, would you mind 'sticking my nose' into it, as I might be ignorant enough not to notice it.

NIF, I agree that is probably not the best place (this topic) to discuss other points of view because the topic is based on the theory of evolution. However just out of curiosity I would like to ask, does your point involve a creation of some sort in any way? And to be honest I am not entirely convinced by my own version of what could have happened. Evolution is definitely not my field of expertise and I might be wrong about making such a claim, however I find it really hard to believe that the mutations are completely random. Lets look at the situation with an eye like this: what is the chance that new transparent cells are going to grow? Pretty little. What is the chance that they are going to grow on the right spot? On the eye, not on the legs, or stomach, etc.? Does it mean then that those cells could have appeared in any other place by means of random mutation and have been wiped out by generations of natural selection? I think that there should be some mechanism (entirely natural, no transcendent being involved) that 'tells' the cells of the creature how and where to grow. For example - if cells on a certain region of the creature's body are applied with pressure on a continuous basis - those cells will eventually get harder to resist it, and the creature will get a sort of a 'shield' in that area. I suppose something similar might happen to the eye. Am I completely wrong and this is all just random mutations and natural selection?

Well, what if the aliens had no germs at all on their home planet? They could have no idea about such a case at all.

So what is your explanation then? As far as I understood the mutation does not have to be beneficial, it just has to be 'little' enough so the creature still has a chance to mate and spread its genes. I definitely have 'cut out' some of the steps between the protection screen and a lens, but that's where in my opinion the natural selection kicks in to sort out all the randomness.

Thanks for your replies! Makes much more sense now. So do you think that it is safe to assume that the lens of an eye could have first appeared just as a result of a completely random mutation and in fact was not a lens at all. For example it could be just a kind of a protection screen made of transparent cells which allow the light in but don't allow in any 'rubbish'? And after millions of iterations with natural selection applied this protection evolved to become a lens. Do you think it sounds reasonable?

Hi everyone! I am a student of Computer Science and I have always been interested in the evolution theory. I've got a question an answer to which I have not found so far. I am very curios how the evolution, or should I better say some abstract living creature 'decides' which would be the next step in progression of its organism. This is not a question about the natural selection and perhaps would be better explained with an example. For instance, if we take the evolution of an eye, it can be divided into several steps: from a simple surface of light-detecting cells into a half-cup, then into a cup, then into a sphere with just a small hole on the top. It all seems very reasonable because the progress is gradual and the benefit is obvious for the creature itself.It is the next step which I can not grasp - the step where the eye gets a lens. As highly evolved species we now can definitely say that that step is obviously beneficial. But how did the abstract organism know that it would be? How did its body start producing another kind of cells which acted as a lens? How did it know that it is the lens that would improve its vision? I would really appreciate if you could answer this for me or at least point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance!