Mathematical Recipe for Post-Modern Lit

March 23, 2005

A combinatorial approach for generating literature, as reported by 3quarksdaily.

“If the original text is well written, the resulting text is a bit surreal, but usually retains the original’s rhythm and even something of its sense.”

Incidentally, the original ABC article references “La Disparition” by Georges Perec, a 300-page experimental french novel that does not use the letter E (aside from “the four unfortunate instances” in the author’s name)– which I happened to come across in a bookstore and, for some inscrutable reason, purchase, back in my reckless youth. A novelty, but not particularly attention-holding. Astute readers will recall that I don’t parlait French– and indeed, this was the English version. Quite a feat of translation!

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Rube Goldberg Contest


Video* of this year’s winning… er, contraption?

The challenge was to create machines that would replace batteries in a flashlight in a minimum of 20 steps. The winning team took 125 steps, thus earning a chance to compete in the national competition. Their outer-space themed machine is described in an article from the Purdue site as incorporating “a bouncing water balloon, a fireman action figure fleeing a fire and weights attached to a spinning bicycle wheel.”

…

This is right up there with nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, and computer hacking skills, don’t you think?

* And I’m proud to mention, this is not mere low-hanging fruit from milkandcookies.com, but something I found on my very own! [Too bad blogs don’t come with refrigerators; luddite self back-patting will have to do]

PS If, sigh, you have the gall not to know who Rube Goldberg is, you can remedy that here. [Actually, if was interesting to learn from Wikipedia that “Rube Goldberg” style cartoons have arisen independently in several different cultures… Which suggests that, like the multiplicitous domestication of pigs, this is an evolutionarily robust tendency– Not, of course, to denigrate the singular contributions of dear Reuben Lucius]

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Dilbert on Copyright

Dogbert puts a whole new spin on the concept of using intellectual property for the public interest: here

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