Agent Attention System

[sholloway]

Summary

A key function of attention is to identify irrelevant data and filter it out, enabling significant data to be distributed to the other mental processes.

Responsible for spinning up cognitive processes (CP). Each frame ticks away at each cognitive process. A CP can have a fixed time to live that could expire if certain things don't happen or are interrupted (like an injury).

Tasks

• [X] Expand the Agent Inspector to show the agent's system hierarchy and memory.
• [ ] Create a scene that demonstrates an agent reacting to stimuli.
• [ ] Create a scene that demonstrates Agent attention (internal cognitive thought).
• [ ] Create a simulation that demonstrates Agent detection around obstacles.
• [ ] Create a scene that demonstrates long term memory.

Cognitive Work

Thinking takes time. Each type of thought should have a minimum # of frames the cognitive work requires.

• Some sims could add variety by having agents with characteristics that make certain types of mental work faster, harder, or impossible.
• The amount of time could also be randomized with in a range to provide more realism.

class AgentCognitiveProcess(Protocol):
  ticks: int # The number of frames this work requires. 

TARGET_FPS = 60 FPS
FRAME = 1/TARGET_FPS
MILLISECOND = 1
SECOND = 1000 * MILLISECOND
MINUTE = 60 * SECOND

Type	Duration	Examples
Thought	TARGET_FPS FRAME 1	Inner monologue. "I wonder what Sally is up to.", "I'm bored."
Imagination	TARGET_FPS SECOND 2	Sees themselves in another scenario. (e.g. Married, dating, on and adventure, in space)
Judgement	TARGET_FPS SECOND 10	They decide how they feel about an event or person.
Evaluation	TARGET_FPS SECOND 5	Comparison of multiple options.
Reasoning	TARGET_FPS SECOND 5
Computation	TARGET_FPS SECOND 10
ProblemSolving	TARGET_FPS SECOND 10
DecisionMaking	TARGET_FPS SECOND 30	Given a choice, making a decision.
Comprehension	TARGET_FPS * MINUTE
Speaking	TARGET_FPS SECOND 30	Speaking to another Agent or the 4th wall, speaking to itself
Writing	TARGET_FPS MINUTE 2	Journaling, Writing to communicate, writing for work
FormationOfKnowledge	TARGET_FPS MINUTE 5	Learning a new skill

What can stimulate cognitive thought?

The Attention System's inputs are:

• The Agent's Characteristics
• The byproducts that have been collected by the parent system.
• The collection other Agents in the Scene.

Of the agent's memory (sensory, working, long-term), the attention system sorts through the sensory memory and based on that queues up new cognitive tasks.

Simulation Demo

Create a simulation that demonstrates cognitive processing orchestrated by an agent's attention system.

• Have the agent be walking around.
• Have zones of different temperature (too cold, chilly, warm, hot, too hot).
  • I could introduce a new simulation construct. A tile. A tile can emit stimuli (temp, pain).
  • Another thought, is to have some inputs into the sim "world". That could provide a hook into controlling the world's temperature, time of day, weather.
• Or, a context menu to stimulate an agent might be useful. The interaction loop might be: (A) pause the sim (B) select the agent (C) pick a stimuli(s) from the context menu (D) restart the sim (E) observe the agent's behavior and inner state.
  • With the context menu approach, I need a way to define a context menu in a sim.
  • Having to go through multiple rounds of clicking to load up a batch of stimuli sounds tedious. It would be preferable to have a way to send multiple stimuli in one go. Perhaps a dialog with the stimuli in a table with checkboxes.