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From: akkana@eeg.UUCP (Akkana)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Artificial Insanity
Message-ID: <744@eeg.UUCP>
Date: 9 Sep 89 01:19:39 GMT
References: <5277@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Sender: news@eeg.UUCP
Organization: Fiat Slug Racing
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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?)