Posted by barrydonna on July 31, 2003 at 23:48:12:
In Reply to: what's the point? posted by dave on July 31, 2003 at 17:48:18:
why not have a user input section where users can input one poem/phrase per day, thereby increasing the word pool
: Your experiment sounds like a great project for a freshman statistics or mathematical logic course, but essentially you are repeating the old "monkeys in a room writing Shakespeare" question. What are you trying to prove? Since the words were initially computer-generated this has nothing to do with natural selection. You need to start with poems written by humans that will be subsequently edited by the readers of your website.
: Random words are just that, but finished poems arise from a vocabulary that has been developed over the span of a poet's life. These words are then selected, filtered and arranged by the hearts and minds of the authors to relay some type of message. Computers can suggest words and spell-check, but only humans can do the real editing.
: Rather than waste your time on this fluff, why not take a real poet out for dinner or drinks?