Although I have owned the domain name for quite some time, it was a simple thought a few weeks ago that prompted me to get a site up and actually blog about something. The idea was “A JavaScript Cat”.

I like cats but I rent and therefore I am not allowed to have pets. I was pondering this one night as I was drifting off to sleep and initially I was just thinking of ways I could get a cat and keep the fact away from my landlord.

A handheld pet game from Japan

Amusing things like dressing it in little clothes and popping it in a pram every time the landlord came around were great pre-sleep entertainment value but not very useful. The image of a cat wearing a little outfit persisted though and this lead my mind towards the Japanese cartoons aimed at younger children. These cartoons usually involve a talking, clothes-wearing cat that can speak in snappy one-liners and create devious schemes. Now that my mind was already in Japan, it wandered a bit further, remembering the Tamagotchi handheld pet games that were the craze late in the 90’s. A simple computer game that, through very simple artificial intelligence, simulated a pet and required the owner to nurture it from egg to full adult.

It was at this point that the idea formed. As my mind was halfway between cats and Japanese handheld pets and because I had been using JavaScript so vigorously at work recently all three concepts fell into place. I was going to get my cat, it was going to be built out of JavaScript and it was going to give me something to blog about.

My next post will be defining what I want in a cat programmed with JavaScript. My initial want, a sentinent, self-aware cat proved a little difficult so I have had to go back to the drawing board to map it out.

Tags: artificial intelligence, cat, JavaScript, jQuery

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 12:52 am and is filed under The Javascript Cat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.