SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- The Botsee Project, a volunteer project with the mission of creating new intelligent life on Earth, today announced the launch of a new crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo, the world's largest self-serve open-funding platform, to fund the creation of the project's first-ever man-made life form.
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The Botsee Project is now crowdfunding the development of a new man-made life form that runs in a simulated environment on any modern Windows PC. The life form, known as a "botsee," swims in a simulated aquarium, chasing food, seeking warm water, and keeping balance against turbulent water currents.
The Botsee Project members plan for botsee behavior to be driven entirely by braneware™, not traditional software, supporting the assertion that botsees are entirely new life forms, not just software programs. Braneware emulates the brains of humans and other animals by arranging a set of generic "brane cells" into a network that creates intelligent behavior, similar to the way animal brains arrange a set of generic neurons into a network that drives animal behavior.
Each botsee's braneware will receive input from a handful of sensors, including a temperature sensor, sensors to feel when a botsee's flippers are flexed downward, a balance sensor, and sensors for red, green, and blue light. When stimulated, each sensor will send a signal to the botsee's braneware indicating how strong the stimulation is. The braneware will then make decisions about what to do next. When the braneware decides to change the botsee's location or direction, it will send signals to muscles, which contract to move the botsee's flippers downward, propelling the botsee forward. By controlling the muscular contractions, the botsee's braneware will swim to find warm water when cold, chase green food to eat, and maintain an upright position despite the constant jostling of the waves in its aquarium.
The Botsee Project's long-term mission is to follow the trail of evolution from simple creatures with simple braneware to more sophisticated creatures with more complex behavior and even a form of synthetic consciousness. With each new release, the Botsee Project seeks to introduce increasingly sophisticated braneware, challenging environments, and complex creatures. The Botsee Project is taking an evolutionary approach by focusing each release on a new set of Darwinian challenges that may once have been faced by our own ancestors—challenges to which the ultimate solution was increased intelligence and brain power.
The Botsee Project expects the IndieGoGo crowdfunding platform to help accelerate research into man-made life and intelligence. As a private volunteer network of self-described "techie hackers," the Botsee Project receives no outside funding from governments, universities, corporations or other organizations. The Botsee Project's contributing members donate their own personal finances, time, effort, and skills to the project, and have reported no plans to start a company or otherwise productize the Botsee Project's releases. The Botsee Project is solely dedicated to forwarding the mission of evolving a truly intelligent new man-made life form.
"Crowdfunding sites like IndieGoGo and Kickstarter are making projects like the Botsee Project possible," according to Kevin Lansky, spokesperson for the Botsee Project. "The recent rise of crowdfunding convinced us to come out of stealth mode and really make a go of this project. Before crowdfunding, we were a loose band of friends in Silicon Valley who have been donating our nights and weekends to experimenting with artificial intelligence, neural networks, and evolutionary computing for decades. We never felt we could develop enough of a community or get enough financial support to get a serious movement going behind the vision we're so passionate about. Venture capital funding requires a return on investment, but we're shooting to make history, not money. With crowdfunding on the rise, now we have a chance to get the resources we need to make a huge difference for the future of mankind."
Everyone who donates to the Botsee Project's first crowdfunded release will get their own botsee they can run on their Windows PC to watch it swim and chase food in its virtual aquarium. Contributors who donate $100 or more will be considered "founding members," a one-time honorary title reserved only for those who donated to the first-ever release. Founding members will have their names, "founder" status and rank added to the official website of the Botsee Project at www.botsee.com. All founding members will receive a rank based on the order in which their donations are received to pay a special honor to the earliest supporters and sponsors.
To get a botsee and aquarium and become a founding supporter or sponsor, simply visit the Botsee Project IndieGoGo page to donate before December 9, 2012 after which the round of crowdfunding will be closed to any new donations.
About The Botsee Project
The Botsee Project is a volunteer project with the mission of creating a new intelligent man-made life form. The Botsee Project was founded in 2012 by Silicon Valley technology veterans with decades of experience in the software and Internet industries, and expertise in artificial intelligence, neural networks, predictive analytics, and evolutionary programming algorithms. For more information, visit www.botsee.com or follow the Botsee Project on Twitter at www.twitter.com/botseeproject.
About IndieGoGo
IndieGoGo is the world's largest self-serve open-funding platform. Since its founding in 2008, the site has distributed millions of dollars to over 24,000 campaigns in 159 countries. Anyone in the world with a dream to make their idea a reality can easily create a campaign to raise money, offer perks and maintain 100% ownership. The company has been featured on "Oprah," ABC's "Good Morning America," and the BBC, as well as in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Techcrunch. IndieGoGo is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit www.indiegogo.com and follow at www.twitter.com/indiegogo and www.facebook.com/indiegogo.
Media Contact: Kevin Lansky, The Botsee Project (Botsee.com), (925) 386-6153, pr@botsee.com
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SOURCE The Botsee Project
RELATED LINKS
http://www.botsee.com
http://www.indiegogo.com
