"Did computer generated 'high-entropy essays' have a life after 1968?"
Brent MacGregor, 2002.
ESSAY:
periodically metal fermions form bloch waves in semiconductors
periodically functions electrons define extended zones
normally metal fermions have a mean free path in a given state
always degrees of freedom consist of standing waves
often normal modes are conserved like Planck oscillators
however degrees of freedom are transported at every lattice vector
and usually electrons are propogated conserving momentum
in solids phonons are reflected conserving momentum
but in all cases photons are propogated conserving momentum
originally Lorentz tried to deal with the Rydberg constant
at first Lorentz failed to explain electrical conduction
a long time ago Maxwell could not understand thermal conduction
in Germany Einstein predicted the theory of conduction
in Germany Born and Von Karman considered solids on the following basis
in Germany Brioullin worked out the balmer serixes
High-Entropy Essays were part
of Cybernetic Serendipity at the ICA, London, 1968 along with
COMPUTERIZED HAIKU. They are frankly bogus physics essays.
Hardly anyone remembers High-Entropy Essays now. This is a sad thing.
They are the forerunner of all the computer
texts
that have tried to pass as human-authored. However, Mendoza's
subterfuge was quickly discovered. This happened about 1962.
Professor
Mendoza tells the
story:
"You
might also be interested to know the origin of this work.
Professor Flowers (no less) had a theory
that
students never actually learned any real ideas; all they learned
was a vocabulary of okay words which they strung
together
in arbitrary order, relying on the fact that an examiner
pressed for time would not actually read what they had written
but
would scan down the pages looking
for those words...The end point was when a colleague from another
university secretly
sent
me some first year examination papers
a week or so before the exam, and I wrote suitable vocabularies
(without cheating)
and
copied down what the computer emitted... the script was slipped in
among the genuine ones. Unfortunately it was marked
by
a very conscientious man who eventually
stormed into the Director's office shouting "Who the hell is this man,
why did we ever
admit
him? So perhaps Professor Flowers' hypothesis was incorrect."
The original program is lost. Mendoza published some of the
High-Entropy Essays. He also published a flow chart of the program.
This is what I used when I came to program my version. However, these two (mine and his) groups of
essays differ slightly.
When I have time I'll try to reverse-engineer Mendoza's essays to work
back to how he made them.
Wayne Clements
Home