May 05, 2025 15:00:00

'Dosidicus' is an electronic pet squid that realizes the question, 'What would happen if Tamagotchi had a neural network and could learn something?'

' Dosidicus ' has been released on GitHub. This electronic pet, like

a Tamagotchi , grows and lives by caring for the pet on the screen, but by incorporating a neural network it has been given the ability to learn.

GitHub - ViciousSquid/Dosidicus: Tamagotchi-style digital pet with a neural network and Hebbian learning
https://github.com/ViciousSquid/Dosidicus

Dosidicus is a project by software engineer Rufus Pierce ( ViciousSquid ) that asks the question, 'What if Tamagotchi had a neural network and could learn something?'

Dosidicus looks like this. The name Dosidicus is taken from the scientific name of the American giant squid, 'Dosidicus gigas.'

The 'Statistics' window displays the parameters 'Hunger', 'Happiness', 'Health', 'Cleanliness', 'Sleepiness', 'Satisfaction', 'Curiosity', and 'Anxiety', as well as an overall score.

The squid acts autonomously, making decisions based on its current state, such as hunger or sleepiness. Users can track the squid's current needs and influence its health and behavior by fulfilling them. If the squid continues to ignore its needs, it may become ill or die.

Also, each time a new squid is born, it is randomly assigned

a personality . There are seven types of personality: 'timid,' 'adventurous,' 'lazy,' 'energetic,' 'introverted,' 'greedy,' and 'stubborn.' These personality types affect the behavior and parameters of the squid, such as 'timid' becoming anxious if there are no plants nearby, 'lazy' acting slowly and slowly consuming energy, and 'stubborn' eating only their favorite foods. These personality types function as a kind of difficulty level, with 'lazy' being the easiest to care for and 'stubborn' being the most difficult.

Moreover, Dosidicus is not just an electronic pet, it is also equipped with a neural network, which allows the squid to learn its personality from experience and grow to be able to make decisions while adapting to different situations. It can also generate new neurons on its own when necessary.

Pierce says he plans to continue working on the Dosidicus project, using neural networks to create behavior similar to that of digital pets such as Tamagotchi, which were popular in the 1990s. Much of the Dosidicus code is available on GitHub.

Pierce has been sharing his Dosidicus project on Reddit and Hacker News in search of feedback. In response to the question , 'Have you seen any unexpected squid behavior?' on Hacker News, Pierce replied, 'My squids are unnecessarily obsessed with playing with their poop and throwing it around. I also had one squid that liked to gather up decorations and store them in big piles.'