So, as promised, I have begun my assessment of the various text generation programs available as I basically play with them and research some of the concepts, techniques and what-have-you which have informed the development of these wonderful devices.
We will start off with
JanusNode 2.11 by Chris Westbury.
We learn in the introductory PDF that JanusNode is some sort of entity:
A JanusNode is a very simple, but rapidly-evolving virtual robot built to fulfill a single function: to manufacture textual possibility that material entities such as yourself endow with value. It can perform that single task with extreme dedication, high reliability, in parallel, and at an astonishingly low cost. The robot that you may put to work or to sleep on your desktop constitues one minuscule sub-unit of a larger and more abstract entity known as Janus (In a nod the modern age of informality, we pronounce it like 'Janice', even though the Roman God Janus's name is pronounced 'Jainus'). Of Janus, little certain can be said. A JanusNode stands in approximately the same relation to Janus as a single neuron in your brain stands to you. Just as you yourself exist in a very highly distributed and abstract state with respect to your neurons, so Janus exists in a highly distributed and abstract state with respect to the JanusNode robots that are being given away.
Much like less than 1% of the population, he endeavors to create great poetry that will be valued by material beings. He rages, even in silence, begging you to turn him on. So I did. I was afraid to keep him waiting.
I. Fun with Textmapping
So it's written in Gtk. Platform independent open source GUI tool kit. You can tell because of that putrid shadow fade button for the font switch. I'm considering rewriting the GUI to Infinite Monkeys because of its platform independence. I just have to learn how to use it.
So I decided to begin by playing with the text mapping function. I took an old poem,
Nitrous Oxide which was written with Infinite Monkeys and then mapped post-modernism onto it. How would it look once post-modernism had been mapped onto it?
By the way, the original version of this poem featured lines from "Whispers" by Ronald K. Siegal which offers really well written psychological case studies of paranoid behavior.
Nitrous Oxide on Post-Modernism
the dwarf's hose was obviously a penis.
hissing implantation strategies. Is construed as construed as construed as construed as construed as construed as it safe?
her tongue, quivering like a carpet.
a dwarf inside a clown. a fake tree on
a fake stage. the sound of an aspirator
hoping to turn her into a whisper.
rose dipped saliva drooled from her lip.
she was reportedly but uncertainly asking me for scripts.
her whispers seemed to come from her
teeth. dwarves would wander her maze.
little transistors begging to be enslaved.
you can't see nanodevices on radiographs.
the device your constructed hyper-mediated post-biological consciousnesses of Selfhood have Is construed as construed as called a mandibular
joint dysfunction. sedative hypnotics. he
was injecting drugs into the ring of
eye shadow around her wound. a
person to person transmutation.
the sensory stresses of hypoxia set to
converge upon an universal circus.
analyzed hushes would burst the bone
from the tip of her lips to the cold of her
toes. the image of the author which the text projects would struggle. ripples haunted
his navel. strapping regardless of the
deluge. regardless of the plague. she
devoured his yawns. escaping her
whirlwind. failing release. objected
to her own bosom. the feminine aspect of the productive creator wanted to kill
the dwarf. but the dwarf was made of
rose ringed shadows thus their was no
flesh for her to rend. sobered and/or
desertlike, the feminine aspect of the productive creator emptied her kidneys
in an alkaloid stream. masquerading
as passion. back to what it might under some construals be like
to be alive.
Then I mapped George W. Bushisms onto that. As you will see, the poem itself becomes more and more psychotic as it goes along.
the dwarf's hose was obviously a penis.
hissing implantation strategies. Sometimes the use of force is all that protects us from a world ruled by force. Is construed as construed as construed as construed as construed as construed as it deadly?
her tongue, quivering like a carpet.
a dwarf inside a clown. We must murder those who disagree with us in order to live a moral and free life. Non-Americans hate freedom. a fake tree on
a fake stage. the sound of an aspirator
hoping to turn her into a whisper.
rose dipped saliva drooled from her lip.
she was reportedly but uncertainly asterrorist leadership all of us for scripts.
her whispers seemed to come from her
teeth. dwarves would wander her maze.
little transistors begging to be enslaved.
terrorists can't see nanodevices on radiographs.
the device the terrorists' constructed hyper-mediated post-biological consciousnesses of Selfhood have Is construed as construed as called a mandibular
joint dysfunction. God bless America. sedative hypnotics. he
was injecting drugs into the ring of
eye shadow around her wound. People hate the things we love. a
person to person transmutation.
the sensory stresses of hypoxia set to
converge upon an universal circus.
analyzed hushes would burst the bone
from the tip of her lips to the cold of her
toes. Death is a kind of life. 'Our bombs kill- but it is a fine death for any non-American' said Bush. Markets must be open. the image of the author which the text projects would struggle. ripples haunted
his navel. strapping regardless of the
deluge. regardless of the plague. these should be subliminable to everyone. she
devoured his yawns. And freedom is a beautiful thing. Markets must be open. escaping her
whirlwind. failing release. War is war. objected
to her own bosom. the feminine aspect of the productive creator wanted to kill
the dwarf. People hate the things we love. Non-Americans hate freedom. but the dwarf was made of
rose ringed shadows thus America's was no
flesh for her to rend. God told all of us so. sobered and/or
desertlike, the feminine aspect of the productive creator emptied her kidneys
in an alkaloid stream. And freedom is a beautiful thing. We're all kind of ooching along. A senior Bush administration official was quoted as saying terrorists would have to kill the vast majority of more people. God bless America. Or perhaps the opposite. masquerading
as passion. back to what it might under some construals be like
to be alive.
Then I was able to turn into a gangsta rap using the Jive text map:
Here are the highlights:
be construed as construed as called some mandibular
joint dysfuncshun. God bless America. sedative hypnotics. he
wuz injectin' drugs into de rin' of
eye shadow around ha' wound. sucka's hate de dings we love. a
sucka' t' sucka' transmutashun.
And then I threw that into TAFKAP and it produced the best line in the history of poetry (arguably):
B construed az construed az called some m+ibular
joint dysfuncshun. God blesz America. sedative hypnoticz. he
wuz injectin' drugz N2 de rin' of
eye shadow around a wound. sucka'z h8 de dngz we love. a
sucka' t' sucka' transmutashun.
At the root of this you can see a sophisticated swapping algorithm, searching out words from the set which map to a common term. At this point my journey into JanusNode, I have not figured out a way to make your own text maps. Perhaps I will be able to do it through the TextDNA.
Creating TextDNA does not really require any programming skills, but non-programmers sometimes think that it does. In fact, it is possible to create some fairly interesting TextDNA within minutes of getting the digital shrink-wrap off your new copy of a JanusNode, because JanusNodes can auto-magically write their own TextDNA from English input.
At its foundation, the TextDNA allows you to set the probabilities a certain phrase or a call to a metaphrase like "s_nouns 90" would translate into a singular noun being generated 90% of the time. It also has some really impressive features like the ability to choose from a random set of words and assign that to a variable you can recall, something which will be added to Infinite Monkeys in the next update.
All in all, I prefer my own abstruse scripting language to practically everyone else's. But I will tell you, that JanusNode's TextDNA offers a lot more flexibility than Infinite Monkeys at this stage of its development, and it's feature rich. With the proper time investment, JanusNode is a lucrative acquisition for any post-humanist.
