From 91b72359ccf781d155d8dd88c7dedd78dc347e82 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Enrico Fasoli <fazius2009@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 20:48:41 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] first iteration

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+# AIrium 2
+
+Each creature is represented as a matrix of blocks in a 2D grid world
+
+There are three kinds of blocks:
+- neuron blocks
+- action blocks
+- sensor blocks
+
+all signals exchanged by blocks are floating point numbers
+
+TODO: energy system
+
+### Neuron Blocks
+
+They act as connectors, they have a __data direction__ attribute which tells in which direction their output flows
+
+They can be represented as arrows
+
+### Action blocks
+
+They take an input signal and act by doing something, for example:
+
+- they move the body in space
+- they eject something
+- they change color
+- they read the next block
+- they write the next block
+- they "eat" a block
+
+### Sensor blocks
+
+They give adiacent blocks a signal, for example:
+
+- they communicate how far is the first block in a straight line
+- they communicate the amount of blocks in relation to blank spaces in an area
+- they communicate the color/type/activity of the first block in a straight line
+- they communicate information about the presence of a particular kind of block in a direction
+- they communicate information about the creature itself, like integrity of adiacent blocks
+
+### Traversing the brain graph
+
+In this system, the body is the brain. It can be represented either as a __graph__ of arrows (neuron blocks) and nodes (action/sensor blocks) or as a __matrix__ of block instances.
+
+Graph traversing pseudocode:
+
+    stack = []
+
+    getOutput = function (avoidLoops) :
+        if avoidLoops: return lastIterationCache
+        if currentIterationCache: return currentIterationCache
+        stack.add(thisBlock)
+        outputs = []
+        for each input block in this block:
+            thatBlock = the current input block we're checking
+            output.add(thatBlock.getOutput(amIInTheStack)) // passes avoidLoops as true to avoid cyclic structures
+        res =  // use the outputs to figure out what to return
+        lastIterationCache = currentIterationCache
+        currentIterationCache = res
+        return res
+
+    clearStacks()
+    // Clean up iteration
+    fixIterationCacheOfAllBlocks()
+
+    for each output block in the body:
+        actionBlock.apply(actionBlock.getOutput())
+