From: Anonymous <nowhere@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 93 12:52:54 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Mirrorshades & Prosody
Message-ID: <9311072050.AA04405@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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ABOUT MIRRORSHADES & PROSODY
************************************************************************
by Keith Eluard
 
FAQs with a bit of Technical Info buried inside...
 
1.	What are Mirrorshades & Prosody? and Why?
 
	Mirrorshades and Prosody are my babies - a pair of text
	generation/revision programs that I developed to suit my needs
	as a creative pump to force me to use more vibrant and evocative
	images in my writings. They originally started as a
	semi-intelligent thesaurus on my Commodore 64 (which I still use
	...as a printer controller). If I were to enter the word "bird",
	I would have spat back at me a few dozen choices such as "black
	bird" or "the blue bird of happiness that flew up my left nostril".
	Anyway, I kept messing with it and eventually ported it out onto
	a NeXT, where I also was using a wonderful language known as
	cmusic to generate musical sequences and sounds.
 
	Then an evil idea occurred to me. If language is related to music,
	then a music tool could be used to create a language tool of a
	similar nature...Why Not!
	
	The first program was what would later become Mirrorshades. It
	wrote haiku.
	
	nothing but haiku
	
	lots of haiku
	
	1,768,669 haiku, to be exact.
	
	Then it ran out of possible word combinations that fit its
	algorithms (more later)
	
	That bit o' code was called "basher" (in dadaist mockery of
	Basho) and was slapped onto indyvax.iupui.edu by a few friends
	(a copy might be around there still...). It had quite a few
	things in it I didn't like, so I revised it to fix its problems
	and what I thought were problems...
	
	Then a lovely group of people sent me a note called SUNDEVIL...
	((I'm still paying for that Mac... <contributions welcome>))
	
	It was at that time I decided that encryption is A GOOD THING and
	bought into PGP. Not a bad cypher, but it could be better...
	
	That's where Prosody came from - a bulletproof adaptation of PGP
	into an encryption that I DARE ANYONE to decode (& if you do,
	may I please drool over your machine, pretty please...). It revises
	an existing text to a degree specified by the user. If the word
	"bird" is entered, it might spit back "black bird" or it might
	spit back "a silly gesture" depending on its settings. The
	original text is preserved electronically in its original form,
	but encoded using a strange attractor. So if you see the text
	block:
 
		it snores in the simple tank. its pipe pesters the mud.
		its hot glove is full of meaning.
 
	you have to decide if I'm being weird or using Prosody to send
	an encrypted post. And it can't be decoded except by using
	Prosody to revise the received message at the appropriate setting
	or else you get weirdness of a similar nature back at you.
	Combine this with traditional encryption and viola! Privacy at
	its finest and easiest.
 
	But Mirrorshades uses the same algorithms to search a database of
	words (the text pool) and generate a surreal style all its own:
 
		rubbing her sable with long thoughtful fingers. skimming
		the curdles of the dream. his eyes, dull and tired, like
		grape seeds. gravy stains from the previous tenant.
		motific clouds. a summer shaped like a hot dog, and its
		rungs of sunlight. nails--no two bent the same way.
 
 
2.	How exactly does it work?
 
	Both programs use iterative mathematics to search databases of
	words classified by 1)part of speech, 2)connotative meaning,
	3)association to other words, 4)metrical value & common
	pronunciation, and 5)established user preferences (it can be
	taught to write really messed up love poems, if you'd like).
	In Prosody, most of the algorithms are strange or chaotic
	attractors with a few Julia curves thrown in for good measure
	driving a probability engine in the form of a set of distribution
	curves set up in a way reminiscent of cmusic algorithmic
	composition programs. As a result, it flows very well when
	spoken aloud (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, you voice synthesis
	developers <especially those involved with singing simulation>...).
	
	Mirrorshades does somewhat of the same thing, except that it
	uses the intersections of strange attractors, distributed
	pseudo-random number generators, various fractal curves, and
	formal rules to create semi-surreal, lucid dreaming images
	(I was inspired by Wm Gibson's work in _Mirrorshades_,
	an anthology of first wave cyberpunk authors ed. by Bruce Sterling)
	that fit a series of preferences that could be called poems.
	That is, if you want a sonnet you can get a sonnet. If you want
	a really f8nky paragraph on gravity to lead off a chapter in a
	physics textbook you're working on, you could get that too.
	
	In short, I was setting out to create the most flexible writing
	tool I could. I think I've come close.
 
3.	Is it commercial?
 
	What do you think!!! No, actually it's shareware with a pricing
	structure like this: if you request a copy as an *.edu user from
	now until 1 December, it's free. After that, it's available at
	the *.com user price of $10 to receive the code key to unlock a
	copy. I'm still not sure if I want to let any *.gov types have it
	yet, but if they're nice to me...we'll see. Hacked copies are
	worthless - it comes out as a really screwed up epic poem (when
	I tried hacking it, it was about an umbrella and a sewing machine
	--I heard great grandpa Eluard rolling in his grave). You have to
	use the appropriate code key for that copy of the program or my
	shipping backdoor (no, it won't open messages created with it,
	just the copy I give you...).
	
	I think it's a reasonable pricing structure. If you don't, please
	tell me through keithwriters @ delphi.com.
 
4.	When will these programs be available?
 
	That depends on your function in the universe. If you are a sysop at
	a university with a respected Creative Writing program, advance
	copies for your Net will be made available. The same with industry
	magazines (computer science, cyberculture, artificial intelligence,
	iterative math, etc... but not $5/issue advertisements like @(*# or
	&@ (##% posing as "true sources of NEW information" on computers
	when they're actually rehashing stuff thought of and started in
	the '50s...yes, it's a torchy kind of thing for me...). User copies
	will be sent via e-mail or to designated FTP sites for downloading
	by 1 December. Pre-release registration materials will be sent to
	requestors around Thanksgiving. Physical (diskette) copies will be
	available also (give KEITHWRITERS@DELPHI.COM a physical address for
	you and everyone will be happy).
 
5.	Has anyone used this stuff before?
 
	Yes. Me. I have 4 books of poetry out and available that are direct
	output from Mirrorshades and/or Prosody: _Naked_City_, "Black Sun"
	(actually the libretto to an opera in development of the same name),
	_A_Dream_of_a_Shadow_of_Smoke_, and _Hieroglyphs_of_Desire_. Copies
	of all are available by e-mail and asking nicely for the book(s) you
	want and providing a physical address. They will be sent COD (or
	free to reviewers).
 
6.	Is it AI (artificial intelligence)?
 
	Maybe. I'm not completely sure. They use a cut-down version of a
	neural net and intuitive search processes based on past accepted
	outputs (it can figure out what you want from that session, but
	not between sessions). They have passed some informal Turing tests
	among some poets & writers of international caliber with some
	interesting results. However, none were computer experts and so I
	am interested in that side of testing. Any volunteers?
 
7.	Where can I find out more?
 
	Prowl the sci.ai.nat-lang for some nifty academic resources. I have
	brewed my notes from my development stage into a text file I could
	send to any interested persons, but it's mostly on strange
	attractors and fractals. Most GOPHERs will have something there
	under computer science, artificial intelligence, fractals, chaos
	theory, or related topics.
 
Thanx for your time and patience. Please direct replies/correspondence to
 
KEITHWRITERS@DELPHI.COM
 
mark it: "ATTN: K Eluard" in the subject line so that it doesn't wind up
on Keith Boyle's desk here at the Writers' Center of Indianapolis.
or snail mail us at Technosys:
 
Keith Eluard, software development
Technosys
3025 North Meridian Street #202
Indianapolis Indiana 46208