h a l f b a k e r yBaker Street Irregulars
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You are probably aware of an autocomplete function in at least one context. Usually, these try to finish your word for you on the basis of the first few characters. This is common on mobile phones. In the case of Google's predictive search, it uses the preceeding words in the text-box, and relies on
everyone searching for the same thing.
A Markov text generator is a system which, given a set of text, generates a stream of similar text based on the probability of word combinations.
I propose to marry these two concepts. When typing something, say an article, the system attempts to finish the entire article based on what you've done so far, and derived from the frequencies of combinations in articles you've previously written. You'd be at liberty to accept as much of this as you like - which might be several sentences, with a well-trained system.
Since most people write articles in several different contexts, it would be desirable to be able to tag articles, so the system could use different weightings for each. Over time it could 'learn' not only your general turn-of-phrase, but also when you say it, so you wouldn't have to.
Markov Chain Algorithms
http://www.in-vacua.com/markov_text.html (A not very technical explanation) [Loris, Dec 28 2010]
Prediction by partial matching
http://en.wikipedia...by_partial_matching [Spacecoyote, Dec 30 2010]
Dynamic Markov Compression
http://en.wikipedia..._Markov_compression [Spacecoyote, Dec 30 2010]
Funny Results
http://thedailywtf....c-WTF-No-Quack.aspx ...from a neural network [Spacecoyote, Dec 30 2010]
A.R.T.H.U.R.'s Anthology of English Poetry by Laurence Lerner
http://www.poemhunt...-of-english-poetry/ Not Markov as far as I know, but generated by selective cut'n'pasting. A.R.T.H.U.R - Automatic Record Tabulator but Heuristically Unreliable Reasoner [Dub, Dec 30 2010]
A.R.T.H.U.R.
http://lists.digita...10-June/001321.html [Dub, Dec 30 2010]
Yes, this should work flawlessly
http://damnyouautocorrect.com [BunsenHoneydew, Jan 02 2011]
ChatterBot
ChatterBot [theircompetitor, Jan 02 2011]
Emacs "Dissociated Press"
https://gnoetrydail...ted-press-in-emacs/ Baked since 1972. In emacs, command "M-x dissociated-press" in a buffer full of text. [rmutt, Jan 03 2011]
[link]
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This could possibly be done in a top-down fashion: given writing examples a machine could write an article, given a very very detailed outline: sort of a text compiler. |
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But I doubt it could be done in a linear fashion, which the Title suggests, where you start dictating an article and the machine finishes it for you, given that the machine has no clue what point you're trying to make. |
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"Uncle Tobias we kept in a bucket..." |
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I just worry about the distraction. |
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... stay tuned another couple of years (or decades
depending how it goes) - I'm baking
something just like it.
What you are
basically
describing is form of AI. Imagine injecting this
idea into a to a human brain: "Uncle Tobias we
kept in a bucket...." .. the person would either
complete the story for you best as they could, or
they would get overwhelmed all the ambiguous
completions and give up. The
difference between those two results depends on
the persons "creativity quotient" ... the more
creative person will be willing to take risks and
just "output" whatever ridiculous completion
comes to mind. The less creative person will be
more careful and just say "I have no idea" and stop
at that.
So basically there would need to be some kind of a
"creativity" slider along with this input form. Low
creativity gives you brief results that are well
accepted and known, high creativity results would
be lengthy and creative. |
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Probably useless, but would kick out funny results. I look forward to the results of [ixnaum]'s research. |
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This is a thoroughly excellent idea; if baked, I wouldn't care
whether the output were meaningful; in fact, generation of
literate, creative rubbish would probably be the commonest use;
definite morning goods |
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It looks like you're trying to write a resignation
letter. Would you like me to finish it for you? |
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[+] Sort of like Autotune, but for writing. You could just bang away at the keyboard, and it would Autotext in real time, making you sound great (comparable to Cher singing 'Believe.'). Also, that way, if you were accused of plagiarism, you could blame the Autotexter. |
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It might have a niche application in the treatment of
writer's block. For people who have particular horror of
the blank page ("Writing's easy. You put a blank sheet of
paper into the typewriter, then stare at it until drops of
blood form on your forehead") it's sometimes
recommended to type anything -- anything at all, no
matter how bad, just so the page isn't blank anymore.
That gets you over the hump, and then you can revise your
way towards the final product. For some of us, revision,
no mater how extensive, is infinitely easier than writing
the text in the first place. |
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[rmutt] emacs doesn't count as baked, because if it did
*everything* would be baked. |
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