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The intuitive algorithm.

Roger Penrose considered it impossible. Thinking could never imitate a computer process. He said as much in his book, The Emperor’s New Mind. But, a new book, The Intuitive Algorithm, (IA), suggested that intuition was a pattern recognition process. Intuition propelled information through many neural regions like a lightning streak. Data moved from input to output in a reported 20 milliseconds. The mind saw, recognized, interpreted and acted. In the blink of an eye. Myriad processes converted light, sound, touch and smell instantly into your nerve impulses. A dedicated region recognized those impulses as objects and events. The limbic system, another region, interpreted those events to generate emotions. A fourth region responded to those emotions with actions. The mind perceived, identified, evaluated and acted. Intuition got you off the hot stove in a fraction of a second. And it could be using a simple algorithm.

Is instant holistic evaluation impossible?

The system, with over a hundred billion neurons, processed the information from input to output in just half a second. All your knowledge was evaluated. Walter Freeman, the famous neurobiologist, defined this amazing ability. “The cognitive guys think it’s just impossible to keep throwing everything you’ve got into the computation every time. But, that is exactly what the brain does. Consciousness is about bringing your entire history to bear on your next step, your next breath, your next moment.” The mind was holistic. It evaluated all its knowledge for the next activity. How could so much information be processed so quickly? Where could such knowledge be stored?

Exponential growth of the search path

Unfortunately, the recognition of subtle patterns posed formidable problems for computers. The difficulty was an exponential growth of the recognition search path. The problems in the diagnosis of diseases was typical. Normally, many shared symptoms were presented by a multitude of diseases. For example, pain, or fever could be indicated for many diseases. Each symptom pointed to several diseases. The problem was to recognize a single pattern among many overlapping patterns. When searching for the target disease, the first selected ailment with the first presented symptom could lack the second symptom. This meant back and forth searches, which expanded exponentially as the database of diseases increased in size. That made the process absurdly long drawn - theoretically, even years of search, for extensive databases. So, in spite of their incredible speed, rapid pattern recognition on computers could never be imagined.

The Intuitive Algorithm

But, industry strength pattern recognition was feasible. IA introduced an algorithm, which could instantly recognize patterns in extended databases. The relationship of each member of the whole database was coded for each question.

(Is pain a symptom of the disease?)

Disease1Y, Disease2N, Disease3Y, Disease 4Y, Disease5N, Disease6N,
Disease7Y, Disease8N, Disease9N, Disease10N, Disease11Y, Disease12Y,
Disease13N, Disease14U, Disease15Y, Disease16N, Disease17Y, Disease18N,
Disease19N, Disease20N, Disease21N, Disease22Y, Disease23N, Disease24N,
Disease25U, Disease26N, Disease27N, Disease28U, Disease27Y, Disease30N,
Disease31U, Disease32Y, Disease33Y, Disease34U, Disease35N, Disease36U,
Disease37Y, Disease38Y, Disease39U, Disease40Y, Disease41Y, Disease42U,
Disease43N, Disease44U, Disease45Y, Disease46N, Disease47N, Disease48Y

(Y = Yes: N = No: U = Uncertain)

The key was to use elimination to evaluate the database, not selection. Every member of the database was individually coded for elimination in the context of each answer.

(Is pain a symptom of the disease? Answer: YES)

Disease1Y, xxxxxxN, Disease3Y, Disease4Y, xxxxxx5N, xxxxxx6N, Disease7Y,
xxxxxx8N, xxxxxx9N, xxxxxx0N, Disease11Y, Disease12Y, xxxxxx13N,
Disease14U, Disease15Y, xxxxxx16N, Disease17Y, xxxxxx18N, xxxxxx19N,
xxxxxx20N, xxxxxx21N, Disease22Y, xxxxxx23N, xxxxxx24N, Disease25U,
xxxxxx26N, xxxxxx27N, Disease28U, Disease27Y, xxxxxx30N, Disease31U,
Disease32Y, Disease33Y, Disease34U, xxxxxx35N, Disease36U, Disease37Y,
Disease38Y, Disease39U, Disease40Y, Disease41Y, Disease42U, xxxxxx43N,
Disease 44U, Disease45Y, xxxxxx46N, xxxxxx47N, Disease 48Y

(All “N” Diseases eliminated.)

For disease recognition, if an answer indicated a symptom, IA eliminated all diseases devoid of the symptom. Every answer eliminated, narrowing the search to reach diagnosis.

(Is pain a symptom of the disease? Answer: NO)

xxxxxx1Y, Disease2N, xxxxxx3Y, xxxxxx4Y, Disease5N, Disease6N, xxxxxx7Y,
Disease8N, Disease9N, Disease10N, xxxxxx11Y, xxxxx12Y, Disease13N,
Disease14U, xxxxxx15Y, Disease16N, xxxxxx17Y, Disease18N, Disease19N,
Disease20N, Disease21N, xxxxxx22Y, Disease23N, Disease24N, Disease25U,
Disease26N, Disease27N, Disease28U, xxxxxx27Y, Disease30N, Disease31U,
xxxxxx32Y, xxxxxx33Y, Disease34U, Disease35N, Disease36U, xxxxxx37Y,
xxxxxx38Y, Disease39U, xxxxxx40Y, xxxxxx41Y, Disease42U, Disease43N,
Disease 44U, xxxxxx45Y, Disease46N, Disease47N, xxxxxx48Y

(All “Y” Diseases eliminated.)

If the symptom was absent, IA eliminated all diseases which always exhibited the symptom. Diseases, which randomly presented the symptom were retained in both cases. So the process handled uncertainty - the “Maybe” answer, which normal computer programs could not handle.

(A sequence of questions narrows down to Disease27 - the answer.)

xxxxxx1Y, xxxxxx2N, xxxxxx3Y, xxxxxx4Y, xxxxxx5N, xxxxxx6N, xxxxxx7Y,
xxxxxx8N, xxxxxx9N, xxxxxx10N, xxxxxx11Y, xxxxxx12Y, xxxxxx13N,
xxxxxx14U, xxxxxx15Y, xxxxxx16N, xxxxxx17Y,xxxxxx18N, xxxxxx19N,
xxxxxx20N, xxxxxx21N, xxxxxx22Y, xxxxxx23N, xxxxxx24N, xxxxxx25U,
xxxxxx26N, xxxxxx27N, xxxxxx28U, Disease27Y, xxxxxx30N, xxxxxx31U,
xxxxxx32Y, xxxxxx33Y, xxxxxx34U, xxxxxx35N, xxxxxx36U, xxxxxx37Y,
xxxxxx38Y, xxxxxx39U, xxxxxx40Y, xxxxxx41Y, xxxxxx42U, xxxxxx43N,
xxxxxx44U, xxxxxx45Y, xxxxxx46N, xxxxxx47N, xxxxxx48Y

(If all diseases are eliminated, the disease is unknown.)

Instant pattern recognition

IA was proved in practice. It had powered Expert Systems acting with the speed of a simple recalculation on a spreadsheet, to recognize a disease, identify a case law or diagnose the problems of a complex machine. It was instant, holistic, and logical. If several parallel answers could be presented, as in the multiple parameters of a power plant, recognition was instant. For the mind, where millions of parameters were simultaneously presented, real time pattern recognition was practical. And elimination was the key.

Elimination = Switching off

Elimination was switching off - inhibition. Nerve cells were known to extensively inhibit the activities of other cells to highlight context. With access to millions of sensory inputs, the nervous system instantly inhibited - eliminated trillions of combinations to zero in on the right pattern. The process stoutly used “No” answers. If a patient did not have pain, thousands of possible diseases could be ignored. If a patient could just walk into the surgery, a doctor could overlook a wide range of illnesses. But, how could this process of elimination be applied to nerve cells? Where could the wealth of knowledge be stored?

Combinatorial coding

The mind received kaleidoscopic combinations of millions of sensations. Of these, smells were reported to be recognized through a combinatorial coding process, where nerve cells recognized combinations. If a nerve cell had dendritic inputs, identified as A, B, C and so on to Z, it could then fire, when it received inputs at ABC, or DEF. It recognized those combinations. The cell could identify ABC and not ABD. It would be inhibited for ABD. This recognition process was recently reported by science for olfactory neurons. In the experiment scientists reported that even slight changes in chemical structure activated different combinations of receptors. Thus, octanol smelled like oranges, but the similar compound octanoic acid smelled like sweat. A Nobel Prize acknowledged that discovery in 2004.

Galactic nerve cell memories

Combinatorial codes were extensively used by nature. The four “letters” in the genetic code - A, C, G and T - were used in combinations for the creation of a nearly infinite number of genetic sequences. IA discusses the deeper implications of this coding discovery. Animals could differentiate between millions of smells. Dogs could quickly sniff a few footprints of a person and determine accurately which way the person was walking. The animal’s nose could detect the relative odour strength difference between footprints only a few feet apart, to determine the direction of a trail. Smell was identified through remembered combinations. If a nerve cell had just 26 inputs from A to Z, it could receive millions of possible combinations of inputs. The average neuron had thousands of inputs. For IA, millions of nerve cells could give the mind galactic memories for combinations, enabling it to recognize subtle patterns in the environment. Each cell could be a single member of a database, eliminating itself (becoming inhibited) for unrecognized combinations of inputs.

Elimination the key

Elimination was the special key, which evaluated vast combinatorial memories. Medical texts reported that the mind had a hierarchy of intelligences, which performed dedicated tasks. For example, there was an association region, which recognized a pair of scissors using the context of its feel. If you injured this region, you could still feel the scissors with your eyes closed, but you would not recognize it as scissors. You still felt the context, but you would not recognize the object. So, intuition could enable nerve cells in association regions to use perception to recognize objects. Medical research reported many such recognition regions.

Serial processing

A pattern recognition algorithm, intuition enabled the finite intelligences in the minds of living things to respond holistically within the 20 millisecond time span. These intelligences acted serially. The first intelligence converted the kaleidoscopic combinations of sensory perceptions from the environment into nerve impulses. The second intelligence recognized these impulses as objects and events. The third intelligence translated the recognized events into feelings. A fourth translated feelings into intelligent drives. Fear triggered an escape drive. A deer bounded away. A bird took flight. A fish swam off. While the activities of running, flying and swimming differed, they achieved the same objective of escaping. Inherited nerve cell memories powered those drives in context.

The mind - seamless pattern recognition

Half a second for a 100 billion nerve cells to use context to eliminate irrelevance and deliver motor output. The time between the shadow and the scream. So, from input to output, the mind was a seamless pattern recognition machine, powered by the key secret of intuition - contextual elimination, from massive acquired and inherited combinatorial memories in nerve cells.

Abraham Thomas is the author of The Intuitive Algorithm, a book, which suggests that intuition is a pattern recognition algorithm. This leads to an understanding of the powerful forces that control your mind. The ebook version is available at http://www.intuition.co.in. The book may be purchased only in India. The website, provides a free movie and a walk through to explain the ideas.

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The Challenge: An important challenge in creating a role playing gameand one prone to be overlookedis the challenge of game variety. Many role playing games are genre-specific, their rules geared to only a certain game style. Indeed, some RPGs specify more than just genre. The game world, story line, even play style are all used as factors in game design.

Not all RPGs worry excessively about this. Many use a specific game world or story line setting to benefit from brand loyalty and recognizable realms and characters. However, the more variety the game makes available, the greater the game’s potential to draw in players.

In any case, particularly specific role playing games fit their niches well enough. The designers who truly have to worry about the fourth challenge are those who intend to create a reasonably broad RPG. The fact is that role players demand variety. Browse the web sites (or even the banner ads!) of a few on-line role playing games, and you will quickly find that one of the most common selling points is the number (and, sometimes, unpredictability) of the character types they offer. Role players enjoy having a lot of character types to choose from. A fantasy game that only has fighters, wizards, clerics, and rogues won’t cut it, as won’t a sci-fi game where the only choices are astronaut, robot, and alien.

Crossovers are also becoming popular in some groups. There are plenty of players out there who would much prefer a game where robots and aliens can fight alongside fighters and wizards. And if there is a superhero or two in the group, so much the better!

But for a game to provide such options, it must be versatile. The RPG has to be able to support not only the vast (infinite?) number of character types that imaginative players might think of within a single genre, but if you want to cater to crossover players, also to the possible character types from other genres. And you have to do so while maintaining the first three challenges, and the six that will be provided afterwards.

The Risk: So now you know why it is good to make for a game with variety. So let’s say you intend to do so, going all-out with any genre possible. Good!

Here’s the problem.

You immediately find friction between this challenge and the third challenge, character value. Technological development insists that a sword is a better weapon than a club, a gun better than a sword, and a laser rifle better than a gun. So how are you supposed to maintain character value between a party that consists of a cave man, a medieval knight, a modern soldier, and a futuristic robot?

You also need a solid and balanced way for forces from opposed genres to interact. Consider magic, superhero powers, technology (both modern and futuristic separately, of course), psychic abilities (possibly differentiating between aliens, gifted modern humans, and mind-crafting mages), and simple physical prowess, to name just a few broad groups of abilities. Can you reliably say that any of them trumps the others? If so, you are shattering character value. Do they interact at all? If not, there is no way for such characters to defend themselves against one another, turning any cross-genre encounters into “who goes first” tests. Perhaps certain powers interact in superior fashions, each having ways to counter others? Too complicated, with too much emphasis on certain abilities. Players wind up locked into a multi-genre arms race rather than able to play the characters they want to play, which simply counters the point.

You could have each sort of ability working in a different way, but again, the complexity is there. In that case, it’s almost like you’re creating a different role playing game for each genre, and collecting them all into an anthology. This naturally leads to too many supplements, and a feeling that players have to buy them all to keep up to date. Good for business, bad for players, and very bad for attracting new players to a new RPG, where there is no brand loyalty getting them to buy even the core book, let alone supplements.

And, of course, there is the problem of interacting abilities within a single character. What happens when a robot learns magic or a cave man develops psychic powers? How about a superhero wielding an enchanted greatsword in one hand, an antimatter rifle in the other, and a wand of fireballs telekinetically? Players want to have access to such character types. They have to be taken into account.

The problem is that the more rules you have for describing different abilities, the more likely it is for those rules to interact in a critically unbalancing way. Next thing you know, characters have gotten around every limit you place on each genre, and used cross-genre abilities to improve their power more in a multiplicative fashion than an additive one. Variety is what players want, and it is the hardest thing to give them without breaking the system.

The Solution: As I noted in previous articles, the core rules for QoTR rely on a selection of broad ability types, each with lists of advantages that a character specializing in the ability can gain. Unlike many role playing games, the actual abilities the character has and the player’s description of its abilities are not tied together save for to assert that the description must emulate the stats. Of the various systems I have tried, I found this to be the best option for allowing unlimited description, versatile stats, and balanced character value.

Put simply, a swordsman who specializes in attacking and defending is no better or worse than a robot, modern soldier, or caveman of the same level who specializes to the same degree. Discounting specifically chosen penalties, they all have access to the same abilities and have the same stats. Their descriptions, however (and possibly the abilities that they use most frequently), will vary widely.

There is the potential for some glitches in realism using the system, but realism is actually little more than a sub-genre in and of itself. Some RPGs make a terrible mistake of assuming that players wish to play a realistic game. In QoTR, I handle realism by putting it in the player’s hands. If you want to play a realistic game, build and use your character realistically. The game rules allow plenty of leeway for character design, so players should suffer no real penalty for electing to limit their actions to realistic levels. There are options for unexploitable hindrances (yes, unexploitable) that players who wish to realistically limit their actions can use to get higher stats in other areas or other bonuses. Also, many abilities have a cost to use anyway; ignoring two abilities only gives you two more uses of the ability you really like.

Variety is one of the most important aspects of a role playing game, and also one of the most difficult to properly use. Assumptions and excessive detail can lead to imbalances that only squelch the opportunity to use the versatility offered to its fullest extent. To best encourage variety, design a system that allows players to build characters they way they wish to play them, and forces them to play their characters the way they built them.

Copyright © 2006 Dustin Schwerman.

Dustin Schwerman has been playing RPGs for over a decade, using an analytical approach to critically evaluate the game systems (and so to create the most powerful characters he could get away with). He used the extensive experience gained doing so to create his own game, Quests of the Realm. QoTR focuses on unlimited character customization, relying on its author’s understanding to detect and counter game-breaking power plays. Though balanced, QoTR still allows players to create highly effective characters and run them through heroic story lines. To contact Dustin, read more of his writings, or learn more about Quests of the Realm, visit his web site, Quellian-dyrae.

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