A Quick Tour of the Game

To start...

Think of an object, it can be anything as long as it is general. A cat is a good object, but my cat Pepper would be a bad object.

The first question the Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), will ask is: Is it classified as Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Other or Unknown? In the Game they are defined as ...

• Animal - Any of the animal kingdom of living things including multi-celled organisms as well as single-celled ones that have the capacity for spontaneous movement and rapid motor responses. They typically lack chlorophyll and the capacity for photosynthesis. Examples: a cat, a goat, a snake, a unicorn, protozoa.
• Vegetable - Any of a plant kingdom of living things typically lacking locomotive movement or obvious nervous or sensory organs and possessing cellulose cell walls. Examples: an orange, a carrot, lettuce, a tree, algae.
• Mineral - Something neither animal or vegetable. Examples: a rock, water.
• Other - Something neither animal, vegetable or mineral Examples: love, the color blue.
• Unknown - You are not sure how it should be classified (maybe no one does).

Answering questions...

You should be able to answer Yes or No to the rest of the questions. However, there are questions where the answer is not that simple. A horse is larger than a bread box, but, water is not larger than a bread box, neither is it smaller. Other questions seem silly: Does a camel have four wheels? No. And neither does a motorcycle. The game provides the following options . . .

• Yes - You are sure about your answer of Yes.
• No - You are sure about your answer of No.
• Unknown - You are unsure of how the question relates or you don't know. The question will not be counted.
• Irrelevant - The question does not apply to your object.
• Probably - You are not sure but you think the answer might be Yes.
• Doubtful - You are not sure but you think the answer might be No.
• Sometimes - Sometimes Yes, sometimes No.
• Usually - Most of the time, the answer would be Yes.
• Rarely - Most of the time, the answer would be No.
• Give-up - You feel you have answered enough questions. The knowledgebase is a learning system and the only way it can learn is by asking questions.

The A.I. guesses...

Periodically, the A.I. will guess at the object. You will have four choices . . .

• Yes - The A.I. has correctly guessed your object.
• No - The A.I. guessed wrong and will ask a few more questions.
• Close - The A.I. guessed wrong but was close. It will ask a few more questions.
• Give-up - The A.I. guessed wrong and you don't want to answer more questions.

The A.I. is confused...

If the A.I. cannot guess the object by the time it has asked 30 questions, or if you select Give-up, it will ask: "What were you thinking of?" For convenience, the A.I. will list the objects that are close; select your object if it appears in this list. If your object is not in the list, you may enter your object in the space provided. If the A.I. does not know your object or your input does not match exactly, the A.I. will give you a list of objects that sound similar. At this point you have three choices:

• select your object from the list (even if it is mis-spelled)
• re-enter your object
• none of the above. The A.I. does not know your object. This option will add your object to the knowledgebase.

The A.I. is curious...

If you give the A.I. a new object or if it feels like it, it will ask for a new question. The answer to the question must be Yes or No. The questions should begin with wording such as:

• Can it . . . ?
• Does it . . . ?
• Is it . . . ?
• Was it . . . ?
• Could it . . . ?
• Would you . . . it ?
• Do the . . . it ?

Other variations are possible, the main thing to remember is that the question should refer to the object as 'it' and start with can, does, is, would, could or was. Questions should be short (less than 8 words). Submitting a questions is optional. If you cannot think of a question, choose the Don't add a question option.

After entering a new question, the A.I. will give you a list of questions that sound similar.

• If the question you entered is close, please select that question.
• If you mis-typed your question, choose re-enter.
• If your question is unique, select none of the above.

And finally...

Once all of the questions have been answered, the A.I. will take you to the Update Page. By pressing the Update button, the information you entered will be added to the knowledgebase. This is your last chance to change your answers. You may also leave your name and a comment.

After pressing Update, the A.I. will show you a summary page. The summary page is divided into several sections:

• Spontaneous Knowledge - These are guesses that the A.I. makes based on the information you gave it.
• Answers for your Unknowns - Any questions that you answered with unknown, the A.I. will tell you the answer that it has (if it has one).
• I believe... - Answers that the A.I. does not agree with. It does not matter if the answers disagree, over time the A.I. will learn the correct answer.
• Answers I didn't know - The A.I. will list all answers that it didn't know.