Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!ira.uka.de!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!mcdchg!chinet!jorn
From: jorn@chinet.chi.il.us (Jorn Barger)
Subject: Re: Computer writes a book?
Message-ID: <C1uAzH.35E@chinet.chi.il.us>
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
References: <1993Feb1.213616.8985W@viper.edb.tih.no> <C1spwJ.MnB@cs.uiuc.edu> <1993Feb2.185250.12834W@viper.edb.tih.no>
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1993 21:14:04 GMT
Lines: 16

There's a long and embarrassing history, I believe, of people making the
same boast, that they could whip something out in a matter of weeks that
would be able to rival Barbara Cartland ;^)

It's hard to say simply why these efforts are doomed, but a hint of the
problem might be visible if you realize that you have to simulate
characters-making-choices, which is the AI-planning-problem, undiluted,
and that if you succeeded, you ought to be able to easily switch the
text-output into a 'verbose' mode that *portrayed the characters' 
Joycean stream of consciousness* in microscopic detail.

Every simple act we 'execute' has to have be pre-molded to *avoid* an
*infinity* of ways it might go sour...

jorn

