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A Computer Has Written A 'Novel' Narrating Its Own Cross-Country Road Trip (theatlantic.com)
Ross Goodwin, a former ghostwriter for the Obama administration, uses neural networks to generate poetry, screenplays, and, now, literary travel fiction. The Atlantic tells the story of how Goodwin used a custom machine to write a "novel" narrating its own cross-country road trip. Slashdot reader merbs shares an excerpt from the report: On March 25, 2017, a black Cadillac with a white-domed surveillance camera attached to its trunk departed Brooklyn for New Orleans. An old GPS unit was fastened atop the roof. Inside, a microphone dangled from the ceiling. Wires from all three devices fed into Ross Goodwin's Razer Blade laptop, itself hooked up to a humble receipt printer. This, Goodwin hoped, was the apparatus that was going to produce the next American road-trip novel. The aim was to use the road as a conduit for narrative experimentation, in the tradition of Kerouac, Wolfe, and Kesey, but with the vehicle itself as the artist. He chose the New York-to-NOLA route as a nod to the famous leg of Jack Kerouac's expedition in On the Road. Underneath the base of the Axis M3007 camera, Goodwin scrawled "Further."
Along the way, the four sensors would feed data into a system of neural networks Goodwin had trained on hundreds of books and Foursquare location data, and the printer would spit out the results one letter at a time. By the end of the four-day trip, receipts emblazoned with artificially intelligent prose would cover the floor of the car. They're collected in 1 the Road, a book Goodwin's publisher, Jean Boite Editions, is marketing as "the first novel written by a machine." (Though, for the record, Goodwin says he disagrees it should bear that distinction -- "That might be The Policeman's Beard Is Half Constructed by a program from the '80s," he tells me.) Regardless, it is a hallucinatory, oddly illuminating account of a bot's life on the interstate; the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test meets Google Street View, narrated by Siri.
Along the way, the four sensors would feed data into a system of neural networks Goodwin had trained on hundreds of books and Foursquare location data, and the printer would spit out the results one letter at a time. By the end of the four-day trip, receipts emblazoned with artificially intelligent prose would cover the floor of the car. They're collected in 1 the Road, a book Goodwin's publisher, Jean Boite Editions, is marketing as "the first novel written by a machine." (Though, for the record, Goodwin says he disagrees it should bear that distinction -- "That might be The Policeman's Beard Is Half Constructed by a program from the '80s," he tells me.) Regardless, it is a hallucinatory, oddly illuminating account of a bot's life on the interstate; the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test meets Google Street View, narrated by Siri.
Sorry but a person that wrote the lies that politicians told, sorry but probably had a nervous breakdown, wrote that crap themselves, couldn't believe how bad it was and decided to blame it on a computer ;D.
You choose to do the job, well, accept the ramifications, paid professional writer of lies for politicians, I ain't going to believe anything you say or write, just the way it is.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
I have a few friends who have been down that way. It seems like if your don't want to be looked at funny (to say the least) black might be a bad color to chose.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
"Ross Goodwin, a former ghostwriter for the Obama administration, uses neural networks to generate poetry, screenplays, and, now, literary travel fiction." - Oh I know how this is going to go already.
Gonzo style writing is complete jibberish anyway so that is a good style to choose.
Unless you think inserting random words in human authored Mad Libs is "writing".
The supposed "computer generated novel" was actually produced by a program that just substituted words into a set of frameworks prepared by the program's author. To quote the reviewer "None of the long pieces in the book could have been produced except by using elaborate boilerplate templates that are *not* included in the commercially available release of Racter. Nor does the Inrac language include any sort of 'syntax directive' powerful enough to string words together into a form like the published stories."
The actual apparent creativity and absurdity of the prose was entirely the authorship of William Chamberlain, the guy wrote and sold the program "Racter" and wrote all of the frameworks that was the basis of the "prose".
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Thoughts? KYS and stop trying to be Beau? Ya think? Develop your own distinct personality? Huh.
That is not 'writing'. Give me a break. Also, computers do not have awareness no matter how detached from reality their engineers may become. Pretty over the conjecture and sci-fi fantasies - this is not tech news.
This is typing, or stringing a bunch of random words together in a gramatically correct way. There is no narrative, story, coherence, or coherent description. This is just a bunch of random words and phrases strung together, not a story. It's not even a good description of anything. It's worse than a chatbot.
The non-descript silver-cased machine slowly generated the twisted word play...
Paid by the word?
And is Goodwin becoming Trurl?
...he used his machine to write Obama's speeches.
Soon the human touch will disappear.
books are written by AI, paintings are made by AI, movies are made by AI.
it will take only so much time before AI becomes so good at it that all human art will seem inferiour.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
On the Road: Jack Kerouac will now go into
that dustbin of History...!! (1957 & the 'beat')
generation.
Khazar Talmudic Jews believe this of all they call goyim/gentiles (any non-jew): Jews = biggest racists of all for which they "jew guilt" you for no less! They're hypocrites known as thieves all thru history or were Argentines in the 1940 under Peron, Spanish inquistion, France (1306), Egypt (despoiled/robbed by jews), Arabs (pre & post 1948), England (1330 Edward longshanks), Romans under titus, Russia pogroms and Germany who got rid of them from their nations nazi german's too? No. Driven into DESERTS ages ago! Don't wonder why after all those exilings above.
Should anyone doubt any of this see Jacob Javits' crony Rosenthal spill the beans on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4zMVZ8HnFI/ where he called all Christianity fools for helping Israel and the biggest scam of all time per their beliefs below from their Talmud.
This is the province of the synagogue of Satan (Pharisees whom Jesus Christ himself kicked to the curb out of the temple & they killed him for it. Jeremiah did the same to them also + the Essenes could not stand them either breaking away from the pharisee corruption):
Jew Talmud excerpts (the book that calls Christ's mother a whore & a bastard of a roman soldier):
1. Sanhedrin 59a: "Murdering Goyim is like killing a wild animal."
2. Abodah Zara 26b: "Even the best of the Gentiles should be killed."
3. Sanhedrin 59a: "A goy (Gentile) who pries into The Law (Talmud) is guilty of death."
4. Yebhamoth 11b: "Sexual intercourse with a little girl is permitted if she is three years of age."
5. Schabouth Hag. 6d: "Jews may swear falsely by use of subterfuge wording."
6. Hilkkoth Akum X1: "Do not save Goyim in danger of death."
7. Hilkkoth Akum X1: "Show no mercy to the Goyim."
8. Choschen Hamm 388, 15: "If it can be proven that someone has given the money of Israelites to the Goyim, a way must be found after prudent consideration to wipe him off the face of the earth."
9. Choschen Hamm 266,1: "A Jew may keep anything he finds which belongs to the Akum (Gentile). For he who returns lost property (to Gentiles) sins against the Law by increasing the power of the transgressors of the Law. It is praiseworthy, however, to return lost property if it is done to honor the name of God, namely, if by so doing, Christians will praise the Jews and look upon them as honorable people."
10. Szaaloth-Utszabot, The Book of Jore Dia 17: "A Jew should and must make a false oath when the Goyim asks if our books contain anything against them."
11. Baba Necia 114, 6: "The Jews are human beings, but the nations of the world are not human beings but beasts."
12. Simeon Haddarsen, fol. 56-D: "When the Messiah comes every Jew will have 2800 slaves."
13. Nidrasch Talpioth, p. 225-L: "Jehovah created the non-Jew in human form so that the Jew would not have to be served by beasts. The non-Jew is consequently an animal in human form, and condemned to serve the Jew day and night."
14. Aboda Sarah 37a: "A Gentile girl who is three years old can be violated."
15. Gad. Shas. 2:2: "A Jew may violate but not marry a non-Jewish girl."
16. Tosefta. Aboda Zara B, 5: "If a goy kills a goy or a Jew, he is responsible; but if a Jew kills a goy, he is NOT responsible."
17. Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 388: "It is permitted to kill a Jewish denunciator everywhere. It is permitted to kill him even before he denounces."
18. Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 348: "All property of other nations belongs to the Jewish nation, which, consequently, is entitled to seize upon it without any scruples."
19. Tosefta, Abda Zara VIII, 5: "How to interpret the word 'robbery.' A goy is forbidden to steal, rob, or take women slaves, etc., from a goy or from a Jew. But a Jew is NOT forbidden to do all this to a goy."
20. Seph. Jp., 92, 1: "God has given the Jews power over the possessions and blood of all nations."
21. Schulchan Aruch, Choszen H
I'm currently working on a novel about a self-driving car and a personal voice assistant that go on a road trip without people, to see America. When I saw this headline I thought someone had beaten me to it, but this is a different kind of thing apparently.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
"That's not writing - that's just computing."
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
I wish to return this bottle of Dr. Bronner's Almond Soap. I think it has gone bad.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Not written, any modern book is done on a word processor...so it's "written by s/w" but it's authored by the author
nothing to see here - move along
I get the novelty value of it, but who are the people who actually pay money for this kind of thing?