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  1. Xref: sparky comp.ai:5085 rec.arts.books:26545 misc.writing:4329 rec.arts.int-fiction:1307
  2. Path: sparky!uunet!das.wang.com!ulowell!m2c!nic.umass.edu!caen!uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!paladin.american.edu!darwin.sura.net!sgiblab!nec-gw!netkeeper!vivaldi!seas.smu.edu!pedersen
  3. From: pedersen@seas.smu.edu (Ted Pedersen)
  4. Newsgroups: comp.ai,rec.arts.books,misc.writing,rec.arts.int-fiction
  5. Subject: Re: Computer writes a book? WHY?
  6. Message-ID: <1993Jan27.151317.2997@seas.smu.edu>
  7. Date: 27 Jan 93 15:13:17 GMT
  8. References: <1993Jan25.163029.1901@seas.smu.edu> <kxp36!l@rpi.edu> <1k56lgINNc5q@shelley.u.washington.edu>
  9. Sender: Ted Pedersen
  10. Organization: SMU - School of Engineering & Applied Science - Dallas
  11. Lines: 23
  12. Nntp-Posting-Host: hyper_f.seas.smu.edu
  13.  
  14. In regards to why we would want a computer to write a book...
  15.  
  16. The computer really isn't writing the book. It's the programmer who writes
  17. the program that writes the book. Despite all appearances computing is
  18. a human enterprise and such a book would reflect the sensibilities of
  19. the programmer and not the computer.
  20.  
  21. It's a different way to think about writing a book. Don't write the
  22. book, write the program that writes the book. Is it a good approach?
  23. Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see.
  24.  
  25. Clearly there are authors who use very formulaic (is that a word?)
  26. approaches. The open question is "Is it possible to render such a formula
  27. in a form advantageous to computing?" The even bigger question is "Is
  28. it possible to write a program that does more than follow a formula?
  29. (ie exhibit signs of Artificial Intelligence)". Worth investing? From
  30. a Computer Science point of view? Yes. From a literary point of view?
  31. Maybe. 
  32.  
  33.  
  34. * Ted Pedersen                                  pedersen@seas.smu.edu * 
  35. * Department of Computer Science and Engineering,                     *
  36. * Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275      (214) 768-2126 *
  37.