Artificial Poetry and the Comedy of History
THEME: MAGENTA (A.I. COMPOSED MUSIC)
Happy Friday!
As someone who writes creatively for a living, the coming of Artificial Artistic Intelligence is something of a double edged sword.
On the one edge, A.I. could help me meet today's deadlines - or even write this very mailing list while I have a nap. But running my finger along the other, sharper edge, I'm put out of a job by robots.
This prospect is some distance off. But it's coming.
The 2016 Poetix competition for computer-composed sonnets was won by a program that created the following from the single word prompt "wave":
People picking up electric chronic. The balance like a giant tidal wave, Never ever feeling supersonic, Or reaching any very shallow grave. An open space between awaiting speed, And looking at divine velocity. A faceless nation under constant need, Without another curiosity. Or maybe going through the wave equation. An ancient engine offers no momentum, About the power from an old vibration, And nothing but a little bit of venom. Surrounded by a sin Omega T, On the other side of you and me. Okay so it's shit. But it's much better than I could have come up with in a fraction of a second.
Last year, researchers at the University of Vermont pumped 1,327 novels and short stories into a computer and, using natural language processing, uncovered six basic story arcs, and to which of these readers responded most positively (we love a good Cinderella). [Original research paper | The Atlantic write up]
Again, this isn't much use, beyond showing how comparatively complex Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is. But give it a few years and computers will be able to analyse how writers construct multiple plot-lines, dialogue and nuanced characters. Then what?
Visualisation by Andy Reagon and Hedonometer (who can also show you how unhappy the world was at the passing of Patrick Swayze). Illustration by Kirsch. Here's another link to the original paper.
Inexplicably Popular on the Blog This Week
200 Years of Conflict: A Very British Century 1910-2010 (2010)
Before I became a comedy writer, I was a historian. Both comedy and history can give us perspective, even on difficult subjects.
My Masters thesis, for example, looked at three different views of the "Palestine Question" during the British Mandate period, 1917-1948: the diaries of High Commissioner Sir John Chancellor, the memoirs of Richard Crossman, MP, and the comic parodies of "Mustard and Cress", a British district judge based in Jaffa who was fond of Lewis Carroll. His stories and poems showed Britain in Blunderland.
When I wrote this piece, on New Year's Eve 2010, I was struck by how violent the last century had been, despite not being under direct attack since 1945.
In the last 100 years the British have been at war in every year bar 17. That’s 83 years of conflict.
And in each of those 17 years of ‘peace’ we have been the occupying power in one or more countries.
During those 100 years, we have been involved in at least 34 conflicts, lasting a total of around 200 years.
200 years worth of war in one century. There is no punch line, but the blog post is always worth another read to remind us WTF.
“They are having passport photos taken”, the Government Official replied. “These street photographers do a roaring trade here.”
“Why?”, said Alice, “are there many people who require passports?”
“Yes”, replied the guide, “for you see with the influx of immigrants from Western Europe they are kept fully busy; but apart from this there is the further complication of their applications, for by the time these are dealt with, the photograph has faded with age, so the application is returned back to the applicant for another photo to be taken.”
“And what happens when a fresh photo is taken”, asked Alice; “Is the application then granted?”
“Oh dear me, No!” said her guide, with a chuckle; “by that time, the application is more than a year old, and is thus, according to Palestine Law, out of time.”
“Curioser and curioser”, said Alice.
From Mustard and Cress Palestine Parodies / Palestine Paradise (1938)
Thanks for reading! Now what?
In the absence of any A.I. support, I'm going back to writing. I've got a podcast play to finish, and then on with re-writing Episode 4 of Foiled.
SABRINA
I am fully overboard with doing hairs. But when it comes to running a successful salon, it's customers is the problem!
If I get tired of that, I'll make a start on the tax return. Or cycle from the far western corner of Wales to the far eastern corner of England... One of the two.
As always, I appreciate your eyeballs and thanks for reading. I wonder how long before computers do that for us too...
- DC
I'm a writer and Jack of All Trades (if by "All Trades" you literally just mean writing).
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