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From: moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: interesting news article - AT&T AI projects
Message-ID: <1174@vax2.fluke.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Jul-84 12:49:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: vax2.1174
Posted: Fri Jul 27 12:49:23 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Jul-84 00:02:19 EDT
References: <292@ihlpf.UUCP>
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Everett, WA
Lines: 52

For the sake of posterity, I think we should mention several of the earlier,
more pioneering projects:

	'the rich rosen / dick dunn parallel abuse device'
		This was one of the more famous of the early "random
		name-calling" devices, where a 'rich rosen' process was
		created which gainsaid everything its prototype stated; the
		process ID for this complement program was 'dick dunn'
		(notice the common use of first name/last name identical
		initials).  Both were programmed to escalate their co-abuse
		at an exponential rate; a great deal of new ground was
		broken by the programmers, who had to delve deeply into
		medical textbooks to provide enough data for the processes'
		constant derogatory references to the other's sexual
		limitations.  'One of our most exciting experiments', said
		one enthusiastic researcher.

	'obscure subject virus program'
		This project developed a process which would travel from one
		site to another, post news about a pre-selected, fantastic
		subject.  "No one is quite sure WHO decided the subject
		would deal with demonic Wombats", sam$Halloway, "but there
		is no doubt that this was a true winner, if only for a
		limited time.  Other subjects, like mangos, just haven't
		caught on."

	'net egging-on process'
		"This is probably the project with the most potential for
		long-distance profit", said a Bell Labs official.  "We have
		a watchdog process which notices when a topic for
		conversation begins to die out from lack of interest.  The
		watchdog, whose prototype name is currently 'moriarty', then
		posts several outrageous (and often moronic) notes with the
		intention of resparking the initial argument; it often
		posts simple messages saying how much it is enjoying
		arguements posted by our parallel name-calling processes."
		Some of the features in this project include a poor spelling
		generator and a device which creates phrase embedded in many
		levels of parenthesis.




		   "A power so great, it can only be used for Good or Evil!"

					Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
					John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
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