[emmelaich]

Eurisko (Gr., I discover) is a discovery system written by Douglas Lenat in RLL-1, a representation language itself written in the Lisp programming language. A sequel to Automated Mathematician, it consists of heuristics, i.e. rules of thumb, including heuristics describing how to use and change its own heuristics

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurisko

[KineticLensman]

It got a lot of kudos for winning a multi player naval wargame by building a bizarre but successful fleet that exploited all the loopholes and quirks in the rules.

[actionfromafar]

Didn't it build a swarm of tiny boats? That loophole seems to be currently exploited in the real world, too.

[KineticLensman]

IIRC it had at least one small (?) purely defensive boat that couldn’t be destroyed by typical weapons so its parent fleet couldn’t be defeated. It wasn’t like a modern drone swarm

[PaulHoule]

It makes me think of the battles in Doc Smith’s Lensman series where the Galactic Patrol would develop a game-breaking fleet formation to use against Boskone in every major naval battle.

[KineticLensman]

Ah yes, probably need to re-read them. I remember how virtually every book introduces a new super weapon that becomes part of the standard arsenal in the next, all the way up to entire 'negative matter' planets that are fired out of subspace (can't recall the in-universe name) at the planets hosting your opponent's base.

[PaulHoule]

These are all on the Canadian Gutenberg.

[pfdietz]

Traveller Trillion Credit Squadron

Traveller was (and is) a space-based RPG, although the original publisher is long out of business.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveller_(role-playing_game)

[pfdietz]

TCS itself: https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/adventure-5-tril...

[boffinAudio]

Can anyone give a clear example of how this can be used productively? Its description doesn't help much.

What can one do with EURISKO? The fact of its recovery after its authors passing is interesting, in and of itself - but why is EURISKO, specifically, worth the effort of understanding?

[pamoroso]

This post also explains what EURISKO does by putting it into the context of the later system Doug Lenat worked on, Cyc https://outsiderart.substack.com/p/cyc-historys-forgotten-ai...

[isaacfrond]

Excellent question. I have no clue either.