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Wired, in my opinion, has gone downhill since I first started reading the magazine. However, they still write some cool articles from time to time. This article, discussing some of the battle scenes for The Two Towers is amazing.

When an animator places agents into a simulation, they’re released to do what they will. It’s not crowd control but anarchy. That’s because each agent makes decisions from its point of view. Still, when properly genetically engineered, the right character will always win the fight. “It’s possible to rig fights, but it hasn’t been done,” Regelous said. “In the first test fight we had 1,000 silver guys and 1,000 golden guys. We set off the simulation, and in the distance you could see several guys running for the hills.”

It’s scary to take two leaps ahead and think about the possibilities of some sort of “intelligent” program wired up to a robot. that has more advanced motor movements than the newest Asimo robot.