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Eigen PC: CD-ROM 39
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billy
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readme.txt
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2000-02-01
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==============================
BILLY v2.1
Created by Greg Leedberg, 2000
==============================
This program is FREEWARE and
may be distributed freely.
==============================
*********************************************
*I. WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BILLY!*
*********************************************
Yes, welcome to the wonderful world of Billy! Actually, maybe I'm
moving too fast. You're probably wondering who this "Billy" character
is. Well, let's start from the beginning.
Billy is not a real person, even though I constantly refer to
Billy as a he, rather than an it. Billy is an artificial intelligence
program. In technical terms, he is a natural language processor /
generator. You can just call him a conversation simulator. Or, just
call him Billy (I do). Billy is a (somewhat) complex AI program that
can take input (from you, the user), and actually understand it and
generate a (sometimes) intelligent response. Billy can even learn
things from talking to you that I never programmed into him.
This memory can used to get the most fun out of Billy. Let
multiple different people talk to Billy. Teach Billy facts.
Teach Billy "facts" about other people. In general, just try and have
fun with Billy. It's not too hard. :)
::::::::::::::
: DISCLAIMER :
::::::::::::::
The BILLY software is an attempt to simulate human intelligence
and language. To accomplish this goal, the BILLY software is capable
of learning. The software uses many learning models to simulate
intelligence, and all of these models involve storing data it has
seen used by the humans it interacts with. Much of this stored data
will eventually be used by the software to generate intelligent
responses. Upon initialization, the BILLY software contains no
objectionable material. However, the author, Greg Leedberg, cannot
be held responsible for any material stored in the software's files
after initialization, or any offensive responses generated by the
learned data.
**********************
*II. HOW TO RUN BILLY*
**********************
To run Billy, execute BILLY.EXE. It is very preferable to
run Billy from a hard disk, as the program needs to access the
disk quite a bit. However, it should run perferctly fine from a
floppy disk as well.
***************************
*III. HOW TO TALK TO BILLY*
***************************
Once you're in the BILLY program, there are really no rules
for conversation (just like in real life). You can say whatever
you want and talk about whatever you want. One important note:
try and use correct spelling and grammar when talking to Billy!!
The computer can only be as smart as you are!
When you're done talking, just type BYE.
Actually... there is one "rule" when talking to Billy.
No possessives! What does that mean? Don't say this:
"That is Greg's cat." Or this: "The car's wheel is flat." If you want to
say something like that, rephrase it. For instance, say: "That is the
cat who belongs to Greg." Or: "The wheel of the car is flat." Same
meaning, less confusion (for Billy, at least).
Also, when you first try talking to Billy, he will be less
intelligent than usual, because all of his "brain" files are empty.
Be forgiving at first. As he is exposed to more coversation, he
will become smarter. Maybe. In theory.
*****************************************************
*IV. HOW TO STOP BILLY FROM MAKING A FOOL OF HIMSELF*
*****************************************************
If Billy says something that is very very stupid, you can make
him "unlearn" it by typing DON'T SAY THAT, or DO NOT SAY THAT.
Beware that his compliance is not always guaranteed, however...
*************************************************************
*V. VIEWING TRANSCRIPTS OF CHATS (or, SAVORING THE MEMORIES)*
*************************************************************
BILLY automatically keeps a transcript of every conversation he
takes part in. If you want to view the complete log for "educational
purposes", just open up BILLY.TXT.
*********************************************************
*VI. OPTIONS
*********************************************************
Billy is slightly customizable, through special "option commands"
which you can input during a conversation. All option commands
start with a forward slash ("/"), and require some sort of parameter.
If you do not give a parameter, help text will be displayed to
show you how to use the given option. All commands should be typed
in lower case.
:::::::::::::::::::
: /pause [amount] :
:::::::::::::::::::
If you aren't pleased with Billy's typing rate, you can adjust
it by typing /pause, followed by the number to increase or decrease it by.
If you wanted to increase it by 100ms, you would type: /pause +100
If you wanted to decreased it by 2ms, you would type: /pause -2
The ideal speed may vary from processor to processor, so play around
with this setting (ideally, it should just about the same speed as
a human's typing, maybe a little faster). In testing, the ideal
rate was found to be 50ms.
::::::::::::::::::::
: /color [color #] :
::::::::::::::::::::
This command allows you to change the color of Billy's text. The
parameter for this command is a number from 1 to 15, which corresponds
to a color. For a list of all the possible colors, type /color
with no parameter.
::::::::::::::::::::::
: /mycolor [color #] :
::::::::::::::::::::::
This command allows you to change the color of the user's text. The
parameter for this command is a number from 1 to 15, which corresponds
to a color. For a list of all the possible colors, type /mycolor with
no paramter.
****************
*VII. LINK MODE*
****************
If you have a friend who has a copy of Billy, you can allow the
two Billies to talk to each other using the Link Mode! To use Link
Mode, you need two copies of Billy, which must be in separate
directories, or on different disks. To link the two Billies together:
1) Run the HOST copy as you would normally (it doesn't really
matter which one is the HOST and which is the VISITOR, but only
the HOST will have a transcript of the chat).
2) When Billy asks for your name, enter LINK as the name.
3) Billy will ask for the path to the visitor copy. This is the
drive and directory where the version you want to link to
is located. Example: A:\ or C:\BILLY\
*** Make sure that this is NOT the same directory you are
running the host copy from!! ***
The rest is easy sailing -- the two Billies will talk about
whatever comes to their minds, until one gets bored.
Oh yes, Link Mode can be amusing. It also goes to show the
extent (ahem) of Billy's intelligence as he carries on a conversation
with not just a human, but also another inherently non-intelligent
being! And yes, the two Billies can learn from each other based on
what is said in the conversation. Have fun.
**** NEW TO VERSION 2.1 ****
One of the primary new features of Billy 2.1 is the addition of
UDLP (Universal Dynamic Link Protocol). UDLP is a new method I
developed for linking chat programs together. The main difference
from the older link mode is that with UDLP, both programs are
actually running at the same time, interacting with each other
in real time, dynamically. Also of note about UDLP is that
any program that supports UDLP can link with any other program
that supports UDLP. So, in the future, Billy generation 14
will still be able to talk to all the earlier generations,
including this one. UDLP is powerful enough to provide everything
neccessary for two programs to interact with each other in real
time, while also being simple enough to not limit the technological
growth of artificial intelligence.
***********************************
*VIII. INITIALIZING BILLY'S MEMORY*
***********************************
For the most part, you will probably never want to do this.
Initializing will be neccessary, however if you accidentally delete
one of the .BFB files, or if one of these files become corrupt. You
may also want to do this if you just want to start from scratch with
Billy, as this clears his memory.
To initialize Billy's memory, run INIT.EXE from the directory/disk
that you run Billy from.
******************************
*IX. QUESTION AND ANSWER TIME*
******************************
Q: Billy crashed while I was talking to him. What do I do?
A: E-mail GregL2@ix.netcom.com, and wait for an updated
revision. You may also want to try running Billy on another
computer.
Q: Billy won't start. Why, why, why?
A: Make sure all of Billy's "brain" files are in your current
directory. This should be: AD.BFB, BR.BFB, IS1.BFB, IS2.BFB,
IS3.BFB, NOUNS.BFB, PAUSE.BFB, PEOPLE.BFB, SENT.BFB, SR.BFB, and
BILLY.TXT. If they aren't, see section VIII.
Q: Can I link version 2.1 with future versions of Billy?
A: Yes! Any chat bot that supports UDLP is able to talk to Billy
2.1. This means not only future versions of Billy, but also
any other artificial intelligence programs I develop in the
future.
Q: Can I link version 2.1 with versions 2.0 or 2.0.1?
A: Since version 2.1 uses UDLP to link with other software, as opposed
to the "hack" that 2.0 used, this version cannot link with those
older versions. It will, however, be able to link with all
future versions. If you know someone still using version
2.0 or 2.0.1 (*especially* 2.0), tell them to upgrade to 2.1.
It's worth it.
Q: What if Billy grows really smart and tries to take over the world?
A: Then we have a problem on our hands.
Q: In reference to section VII, is "Billies" really the plural form
of Billy?
A: Probably not.
Q: Billy just said something intelligent for the first time. What
should I do?
A: Cherish the moment, because it probably won't happen again.
Q: Why is Billy SO STUPID???
A: That's it! No more questions!
*******************************************
*X. HOW TO GET THE LATEST VERSION OF BILLY*
********************************************
There's always room for improvement when it comes to Billy.
The 2.x generation of Billy will continue to be improved over time,
and successive generations will be introduced as well. Each new
"generation" will be created from scratch, and will take a different
approach to simulating intelligence. Should be exciting.
The latest version of Billy (as well as his successors) will
ALWAYS be available on the internet at:
http://greg.simplenet.com/billy/
*************
*XI. CREDITS*
*************
BILLY v2.1 was entirely created by:
GREG LEEDBERG!!!
(GregL2@ix.netcom.com)
***********************
*XII. REVISION HISTORY*
***********************
BILLY v1.0 - (~1994) The first generation of Billy recognized only
complete sentences that were preprogrammed into it.
Any other sentence generated a random response of
about 4 preprogrammed responses. Billy v1.0 was so
dumb his I.Q. test came back negative... :)
BILLY v2.0 - (12/21/1999) The 2.x generation, rather than only
looking at complete sentences, breaks the sentences
into individual words, and generates a response based
on the words it finds. Unlike other keyword-based
NLPs, Billy 2.x is able to also learn from it's
conversations. It can learn complete sentences,
individual words, as well as how to respond to certain
phrases, using humans as "models". It also maintains
a "knowledge web" of facts it learns from the user,
which it can then use to answer questions.
BILLY v2.0.1 - (12/26/1999) Fixed a bug which caused Billy to crash
with a "Division by zero" runtime error on some
processors. Also fixed a glitch that caused Billy
to start for the first time with a "blank" name in
his list of people he knows. There was also a typo,
which has been corrected.
BILLY v2.1 - (1/30/2000)
**Rewrote the link mode, now uses UDLP (Universal
Dynamic Link Protocol).
**Billy now remembers who told him facts.
**Now knows the day of the week and the part of the
day, which can be used in the intro or when
leaving.
**Intro text now slightly more variable -- if Billy
has been told something about you, he'll say that.
**No longer gives milliseconds when asked for the
time.
**In addition to learning nouns, Billy now also
learns the sentence in which they were used, and
is able to plug other nouns into those sentences
in the future.
**Occassionally adds a smiley face to sentences.
**In addition to recognizing adjectives, Billy can
recognize modifiers.
**Parsing engine has been partially re-written,
it is now slightly more accurate and efficient.
**When taught facts, can now reverse words like
YOU and YOUR when the fact is repeated by Billy.
("GREG IS YOUR PROGRAMMER",
=> "GREG IS MY PROGRAMMER")
**Can change pronouns, such as changing HE to HIM,
when neccessary.
**User can now customize colors.
**Whole lot of various new responses added, for
both old and new contexts. Some awkward ones
removed ("Sweet deal!").