Postmodernism Generator

The Postmodernism Generator is a computer program that automatically produces "close imitations" of postmodernist writing. It was written in 1996 by Andrew C. Bulhak of Monash University using the Dada Engine, a system for generating random text from recursive grammars.[1] A free version is also hosted online. The essays are produced from a formal grammar defined by a recursive transition network. Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes about "Monte Carlo generators" in his 2001 book Fooled by Randomness as a real instance of the reverse Turing test: a human can be declared unintelligent if their writing cannot be told apart from a generated one. It was mentioned by biologist Richard Dawkins in the conclusion to his article "Postmodernism Disrobed"[2] (1998) for the scientific journal Nature, reprinted in his book A Devil's Chaplain (2004).[3]

An example of a randomly generated title.

See also

References
  1. Bulhak, Andrew C. (April 1, 1996). "On the Simulation of Postmodernism and Mental Debility using Recursive Transition Networks" (PDF). Department of Computer Science Technical Report 96/264. Monash University. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. Dawkins, Richard (July 9, 1998). "Postmodernism Disrobed" (PDF). Nature. 394 (6689): 141–143. Bibcode:1998Natur.394..141D. doi:10.1038/28089.
  3. Richard Dawkins (2004). A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 47–53, citation p. 53. ISBN 978-0-618-48539-0.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.