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From: pww+@A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Peter Weyhrauch)
Subject: Re: I.F. Realities (was Re: More rambling)
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Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 20:37:03 GMT
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Greg, thanks for the comments.

I agree totally that "interactive fiction" is not very precise, but I
will assume that from your comments linking fictional literature and
interactive fiction that your definition cannot be far from mine.  You
spoke well when you suggested that IF "draws on previous human
experience for inspiration in the same way as fictional literature."
I would like to see interactive fiction aspire to this level.

And this is where my question of simple realities come in.  You
expressed a notion ("No, you can't!") in a previous post discussing
the possibilities of text-based interactive fiction.  What this
implies is that, as of now, computers will not be able to express the
real world in text.  But now we are in a bit of a pickle.  We want
"real" characters, since we want interactive fiction to draw on human
experience.  Yet, we can't have them, since no computer-based
characters can express an understanding of the real world.

So, my suggested solution to this problem is to pick a life-like world
that both suggests the real world and also is understandable by a
computer-based agent.

You asked the question yourself.  "How much reality do you need to
include before it does [deserve the title of fiction]?"  

The second half of the question is, Can this reality be understood by
computers?  

If we can find a life-like reality that is both rich enough to support
interactive fiction and simple enough to be understood by the
computer, we will have discovered a world in which we can build
literary quality interactive fiction.

So, I ask you all again, what is this world?

	Peter Weyhrauch
	Project Oz, CMU

