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johnslat · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 9:43 pm Post subject: Generating controversy: Part 2

Hope you voted first. Now here is what might be a surprise:

"The essay you have just seen is completely meaningless and was randomly generated by the Postmodernism Generator. To generate another essay, follow this link. If you like this particular essay and would like to return to it, follow this link for a bookmarkable page.
The Postmodernism Generator was written by Andrew C. Bulhak using the Dada Engine, a system for generating random text from recursive grammars, and modified very slightly by Josh Larios (this version, anyway. There are others out there).

This installation of the Generator has delivered 1127152 essays since 25/Feb/2000 18:43:09 PST, when it became operational. It is being served from a machine in Seattle, Washington, USA.

More detailed technical information may be found in Monash University Department of Computer Science Technical Report 96/264: "On the Simulation of Postmodernism and Mental Debility Using Recursive Transition Networks". An on-line copy is available from Monash University.

More generated texts are linked to from the Communications From Elsewhere front page.

If you enjoy this, you might also enjoy reading about the Social Text Affair, where NYU Physics Professor Alan Sokal's brilliant(ly meaningless) hoax article was accepted by a cultural criticism publication. '

Here's the link, in case you're interested:

http://www.elsewhere.org/cgi-bin/postmodern/

Regards,
John

Numpty Honnis · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 9:51 pm Post subject:

He tricksies and lies us my precious! Nasty, 'orrible johnslatsies.

johnslat · Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 10:00 pm Post subject:

Dear Numpty Honnis,
Tee-hee - I just got that in my e-mail from a friend who's in grad school.
Now, if she can only program it to do her thesis for archaeology. I mean, does that sound like grad school bumf, or what?
Regards,
John
P.S. By the way, your guess (gobbledygook) was really spot on - and the Gollum was my favorite character in the LOR trilogy.

Shaman · Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Posts: 446 Location: Hammertown

Wow, is that ever a relief! I thought that I had completely lost every valuable tidbit from my Liberal Arts degree. Wink

Shaman

Atlas · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 662 Location: By-the-Sea PRC

*
That's so funny I laughed my desituational sublimation off!

Seriously, is the Dada Engine some kind of ultrapostmodernist Superweapon or what? Man, my mind is blown!

Thanks John for a Saturday morning treat-- I feel like a kid watching Looney Tunes again!

What does it say about me--I'm trying to think of ways to use it to my advantage....

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

See what I mean about postmodernism... Rolling Eyes

yaramaz · Posted: Sat Apr 17, 2004 6:59 am Post subject:

Dear John,

Thank you for giving me the tools necessary to successfully complete my MA. I will credit you in the acknowledgments page for sure.

Love you to bits as ever,

Yar.

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

I am beginning to find my own words again...

latefordinner · Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Posts: 973

I thought April first was 2 and a half weeks ago. Well, you got me.
What's worse; my assumtion that someone was even trying to make a point (and arguing incoherently), or the the very lifelike (if that's the correct term, your mileage may vary) tone of the thing, or the very scary possibility that it could also be someone's graduate thesis? Coming soon to a school near you, the DOS whose credentials were generated on the Dada engine...

Snoopy · Joined: 13 Jul 2003 Posts: 185

You are probably all too young to remember the late "Professor" Stanley Unwin. There was a man who mangled the language so plausibly that it almost sounded like sense. He last appeared in an advertisement for a word-processor, in which he said "no more incorrect spelly horribold". I have seen quite a lot of spelly horribold on this site!