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Programming IT Technology

Urban Exploration Walkware 101

Posted by Hemos from the social-hacking dept.
wilfriedhoujebek writes "The Dutch Group Social Fiction has been experimenting with walking on algorithms for some time now. Under the heading ".walk" they are taking the thing one step further by introducing pseudo-software to determine the route of their walks. They explain how this works and how different .walk can be connected together to form a 'pedestrian computer'. You might want to read the postscript first."
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Urban Exploration Walkware More

Urban Exploration Walkware

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  • Next item... (Score:5, Funny)

    by sulli ( 195030 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @06:59PM (#5051005) Journal
    They merge with the Ministry of Silly Walks!
  • By some error, this didn't get posted with the Joke foot. Wonder why this happened.
    • I dont think its supposed to be a joke this is about finding paths along streets using software or something

      • Re:It's funny. Laugh (Score:2, Informative)

        by tijnbraun ( 226978 )
        From the homepage http://www.socialfiction.org/:

        Pseudo software as a self generating route description. Is this a joke?
        For the half of it: yes, .walk is a joke. For the other half: no, .walk is a serious attempt to find out if walking can be used for more than transportation alone. Because we were already exploring walking around on algorithms, it was a logical step to modify these little programs into something that actually solves problems. Theoretically these individual .walk programs could be connected into a computer. In the "programming .walk for dummies" text it is shown how you can solve quite complex computations by stripping them down to their smallest factor & have a interesting walk at the same time. .walk has however nothing to do with computer programming in any sense, it only mocks them. .walks is not developed by programmers & the .walk examples are written with only a minimal knowledge of both math & simple computer languages like Basic. Everybody should be able to figure out what a script does, but nevertheless people are scared by them, just as they are scared by Justin Timberlake's lips. This is in a sense part of the fun of the .walk project, there is nothing wrong with alienating people a little bit, because they will only love .walk the better for it in the end.
        Do you fancy a walk with us?

    • I am so confused by this site. First it gives some strange algorithms, and then it explains the algorithm in English:

      "Your export code is 2 Repeat the following instructions; walk the first street left, second street right, then you take the street left that is indicated as your export code. Every time you meet another psychogeographer you exchange export codes. This new code will change the 3rth turn. Remember how often you exchange export code. When you have walked for one hour you return to the place your are supposed to meet. Once arrived there report the number of encounters to socialfiction.org."

      The hell? And later it makes a crack about slashdot. What are they smokin'?

      --nude [slashdot.org]

  • This whole .walk thing is pretty interesting, especially having just re-read: 0wnzored [salon.com].
    • one other quick comment... maybe it's a universal turing machine, but maybe not.

      You have a problem when your bits start deviating from their layed out path because they suddenly have to pee.

  • Screw walkware... (Score:5, Funny)

    by sheetsda ( 230887 ) <<doug.sheets> <at> <gmail.com>> on Thursday January 09, 2003 @07:00PM (#5051023)
    I want software that actually RUNS!

    *ducks*

  • Hence I don't need a computer to cough up a way for me to walk that will eventually waste my time. I already do it every damned day.

  • Pun? (Score:5, Funny)

    by SoCalChris ( 573049 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @07:02PM (#5051039) Journal
    they are taking the thing one step further

    So was the pun intended?
  • I don't get this... Can someone explain it a little better, please?

  • algorithms + chewing gum = disaster (Score:4, Funny)

    by drayzel ( 626716 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @07:05PM (#5051057)
    Unfortunatley, for some people once GUM is introduced into the algorithms the wole system falls apart.

    ~Z

  • This Seems... (Score:4, Funny)

    by mageben ( 557038 ) <code@mage.prodigy@net> on Thursday January 09, 2003 @07:06PM (#5051066)
    Some how this all seems like some sort of subtle ploy to get me to execise... How I do despise them.

    Imagine it we could /. the entire planet.

    -Code
  • These guys REALLY need girlfriends!
  • That .walk stuff is indeed pedestrian.
  • bistromathmatics!

  • ... compile your typical "Go two blocks, Turn left, Turn right twice, Repeat" walking algorithm into binary code and see how many people end up as road pizza.
  • It would be worthwhile to think of a way of formulating statements/rules that don't resemble the languages used in the ordinary computer world, this would stress that .walk is not merely an offshoot of something that is already existing but that it is a whole new field of research.

    Translates to: Whilst open-standards are great and we could leverage and existing language that just wouldn't be cool enough. We need to invent a whole new difficult to learn language to obscure the fact that we've just reinvented the wheel (aka LOGO)
    • Ummm... uhhh... you might want to chill a little bit and, as the intro suggests, read the postscript.

      It's a joke. They guys who put it together only have (both by their own admission and by casual observation) the most rudimentary understanding of programming languages.

  • Dog walkers (Score:3, Interesting)

    by batobin ( 10158 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @07:12PM (#5051109) Homepage
    I've been wondering how long it would take before something like this would hit the market. I've always had the fantasy of using robots with set paths as dog walkers. Can you imagine driving through a residential area, with a bunch of robots leading dogs around? Well....maybe only rich neighborhoods at first, but things only get less expensive.

    Of course, it would be a mixed blessing. It would take away another reason to get out of the house, and I don't imagine the robots would be able to clean up after the dogs at first. Plus you're going to need a huge robot to lead a big dog around. And there's nothing to pull the dog away when it bites the mailman.

    Well, it seamed like a good fantasy. I'd buy one for my dog [tobinhosting.com].

    • Wrong Trowsers (Score:5, Funny)

      by GuyMannDude ( 574364 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @07:49PM (#5051316) Journal

      I've always had the fantasy of using robots with set paths as dog walkers. Can you imagine driving through a residential area, with a bunch of robots leading dogs around?

      Oh sure, that's how it starts. Nice and innocently. Then you'll see people using these walking robots to redecorate their house. Other uses for them will be found and, before you know it, evil penquins will be using them to steal priceless jewels from museums!

      Stop the madness now! We've got to nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand!

      GMD

    • well yeah, but what about when the *robot* starts biting the mailman? er, mailbot?

      Travis

    • Re:Dog walkers (Score:3, Funny)

      by Bastian ( 66383 )
      things only get less expensive.


      Two words: Microsoft Office
      • I can top you with one word: prostitutes.

        Honestly, I used to be able to get some friday-night-action for 20 bucks and a smile. Now I'm shelling out 100 dollar bills, and I can't even smile, because I'm paranoid "Victoria" or "Jasmine" is really an undercover cop trying to bust my ass...and not in the good way either.

        Jesus. They take the fun out of everything!

  • Now when it works with drunk college students ... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    City officals will be able to place road signs in areas that are not on the drunken route.

    Police could redesign footpaths so that they lead straight into the detox cells.

    The possibilities are endless.

  • In related news: The Dutch are sooooo cool (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EnlightenmentFan ( 617608 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @07:26PM (#5051190) Homepage Journal

  • My First Walk Program (Score:5, Funny)

    by MrIcee ( 550834 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @07:34PM (#5051242) Homepage
    Repeat
    {
    1 st street left
    2 nd street right
    2 nd street left
    fpaintf(stdwall,"HELLO WORLD") }

  • They think highly of slashdot.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by recursiv ( 324497 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @07:47PM (#5051308) Homepage Journal
    From
    http://www.socialfiction.org/psychogeography /dummi es.html (describing a division algorithm)


    Everybody knows by heart that 8 divided by 2 gives 4, but only Slashdot creeps can divide 19 by 6 from the top of their head & come up with the correct answer of 3,1666

  • This has already been invented? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Has anyone read Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age" [amazon.com]?

    He already invented the pedestrian computer in that novel. Of course the interactions are a wee bit more "colorful" there than just walking by each other...
  • So does this work in reverse? Can I type of a walk I see some place and get an interesting algorithm?

    I'd be curios to see what kind of algorithm I'd get by entering Funky Walker Dirty Talker's [fortunecity.com] steps.
  • What about errors invoked by an agent stopping off at a pub for a round?

  • I was one of the walkers!!! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I did the London walk and...

    A) I thought it would be a dehumanising experience
    B) It turned out to be a great way to see streets in London that I'd never walked down and never would have walked down.

    I thought it was funny that one of the posters above wondered whether this is what happens when you are sans girlfriend. Quite apart from the fact that Hemos is the only confirmed sighting of a mated Slashdotter (prove me wrong, studly geeks!) - I DID THE WALK WITH MY GIRLFRIEND! So there.

    Her account is here [socialfiction.org]...

    • My girlfriend isn't a Slashdotter, but she is another geek. Mmmm, goth chick who groks kernel code...

      Might be nice to do this in Glasgow, and see where we end up. In a pub, I should think. With decent beer, and a good jukebox or possibly a DJ,

      Frankly, though, I expected this story to be about exploring railway tunnels and stuff.

  • wow (Score:1)

    by pummer ( 637413 )
    why would anyone want to be walking on computers? wouldn't they break if you walked on them? if not, where can i get a case this robust?

    /wow
  • this reminds me of when i was in high school and a friend of mine and i would get bored and drive. we determined our path by pulling cards, red for right, black for left and the card number determined the number of intersections before the next card. good fun on a saturday night. if you're _really_ bored.....

  • Disappointed! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by brain159 ( 113897 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @09:47PM (#5051935) Journal
    Folks, I'm disheartened... Over 60 posts at the time I started writing this comment and a brief scan reveals that *nobody* has yet made any allusions to HEX [everything2.org], the "working things out machine" run by the High-Energy Magic department of Unseen University in Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

    For those of you not familiar, HEX is a lovely analogy constructed out of fictional glass tubes through which vast numbers of ants walk, diverted by gates (you get the idea). It has components including an unreal-time clock and generates messages along the lines of "+++ Out Of Cheese Error. Redo from Start +++". It apparently bears a witty "Anthill Inside" legend, and in one of the Discworld adventure games a comment is made that when you break it and the ants escape "it's been completely debugged".

    I don't need to painfully fill in the gap between "walkware" and "ants walking around inside HEX", do I?

    • Um.

      I imagine that the reason nobody else made the connection is that it is really strained.

      Plus, even if someone else were to equate walking to ants, there are many other references that could be made, like perhaps the Langdon's Ant cellular automaton, or Aunt Hillary the anthill from Godel, Escher, Bach.
    • Well I for one don't know what the hell all of you are talking about. Social fiction? Architecture? Walking? Disco Socialism? Huh? WTF?
  • This reminds me of the "hand on the wall" algorithm [astrolog.org] to escape certain labyrinths.
  • These silly Dutch generative art people have gone and discovered that cities can be used as Turing machines, and they don't even know it!

  • I didn't really see anything like the description implied at the linked site. The only way in which their algorithms became more complex was by assuming the people walking around could store a fair amount of state and perform arithmetic, branching, and repetition - in short, the people were Turing devices themselves.

    I am going to think some more about some constraints that could be put on the problem so that it becomes more interesting.

  • At university, some 25 years ago, we went on Pi walks:

    Start in some direction; when a junction is reached inspect the next digit of Pi: 1,2,3: turn left; 4,5,6: go straight on; 7,8,9: turn right; 0: turn back.

    The results can be interesting.

    For a change we did 'e' walks. You can use any irrational number.
  • In reality cities should be redesigned from scratch & people should be made flawless by genetic modification to reach the situation where the human compliance to the complexities of an algorithm as a psychogeographical device is perfect.

    This is my favourite bit. This whole seems to be a little too much pseudo-intellectualizing fuelled by drugs and intellectual self-indulgence. College roommates spending WAY to much time exploring their earth-shattering ideas... time to sober up and read a book (in a genre your unfarmiliar with).

  • I like the idea of algorithm-based walks. But most of the examples given, while interesting from a chaotic standpoint, are too deterministic for my taste--that is, each time a walk is started, it will take the walker on exactly the same path. More interesting walks might be generated by starting with a random seed (say, wall clock time, the calendar date, or how many days until the milk in the fridge "expires").

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