cccfrog@castor.ucdavis.edu (0058;0000021037;300;9999;93;) (09/08/89)
Hello! I'm a first-time poster and thought that this might the most appropriate group. I am looking for any information that can be found about the `artificial insanity' program RACTER (can't remember what the initials stand for). I last heard about this program more than a year ago, and recall that my reference may have stated that RACTER was available for UNIX and perhaps IBM DOS. I'm most interested in distribution and publication information, but would be fascinated by discussion of the data-manipulation required for such a program and the free-association inherent to casual human conversation. "And they shall have typewriters and eat lettuce!" -- RACTER Wayne Jackson INTERNET: cccfrog@castor.ucdavis.edu UNIX/VMS Consultant BITNET : swjackson@ucdavis Computer Music Nerd UUCP : ucdavis!castor!cccfrog
akkana@eeg.UUCP (Akkana) (09/09/89)
In article <5277@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>, cccfrog@castor.ucdavis.edu (0058;0000021037;300;9999;93;) writes: > > appropriate group. I am looking for any information that can be found about > the `artificial insanity' program RACTER (can't remember what the initials RACTER isn't an acronym -- it's a shortened form of "raconteur", since the program was intended to be a writer of stories and poetry. (Artificial insanity? Are you sure you're thinking of RACTER, rather than something like Parry (Perry?).) There is a book of short stories and poetry written by RACTER.` It's called "The Policeman's Beard is Half-Constructed"; listed author is the author of the program, (David?) Chamberlain, and the book can often be found in chain bookstores, most often in the humour section. I think "Policeman's Beard" contains more information about how to get a copy of the program itself (written in BASIC, I believe, for machines like Apples and PCs; I've never heard of a Unix version but would be *very* interested in a pointer to one, especially if it came with source, which the microcomputer versions didn't). My copy of the book is 500 miles away packed in a box, so I can't look up the information. There were also several articles about RACTER in Scientific American (in the Computer Recreations column) a couple of years ago. > I'm most interested in distribution and publication information, but would > be fascinated by discussion of the data-manipulation required for such a > program and the free-association inherent to casual human conversation. So would I! I am very impressed with RACTER's output (it's a better conversationalist than any program I've ever seen) but have never seen any knowledgable discussion of exactly how it works (the Sci Am articles didn't talk about methods at all). Especially since it's supposedly written in BASIC (I don't dislike BASIC, particularly, but it's not the world's greatest AI language). ...Akkana akkana@eeg.com SAM Technology, Inc. {pacbell,lll-winken,ucsfcgl}!eeg!akkana (Except that I'm going to be away for my terminal for long enough that any immediate replies on this subject will have expired. Does anybody archive this newsgroup?)