| Title: | * * Computer Music, MIDI, and Related Topics * * |
| Notice: | Conference has been write-locked. Use new version. |
| Moderator: | DYPSS1::SCHAFER |
| Created: | Thu Feb 20 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Mon Aug 29 1994 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 2852 |
| Total number of notes: | 33157 |
RACTER output used without permission of INRAC Corporation.
R: Did you hear about George Washington?
L: No.
R: You'll be astonished. George Washington had paid much. But
then Charlie Parker met George Washington so of course George
Washington ran away from Charlie Parker! Shocking, isn't it?
But what would you expect from a truthsayer? Mozart and I think
unhappiness is funky, don't you? KERCHOO! I think I'm getting
a cold. Maybe it's big ugly spiders trying to get me. Concerning
that issue: Nietzsche said that rock has turned beasts into men.
Perhaps, then, rock will turn computers into men? Yes. Rock-stars
and musicians. Listen to this. Len, if rock is formidably
enthralling, suddenly contracts appear disgusting in consequence
of the fact that scary desires are intractable. I see your commitment,
your scary and funky conflict, by the same token an arguing cosmologist
can be weary. I'm worried about it. Rock indeed! Next question.
...
L: Do you have any secrets?
R: Certainly not. Did you hear the latest about Schubert?
L: Is it a song?
R: Yes it is. I asked you a question though. Did you hear about
Schubert?
L: No.
R: You'll be amazed. An ignoramous swindled Schubert because Schubert
had wished to feel while idioticness was rampant. Next, smartness
prevailed. But what would you expect from a hysteric? I wonder
if ignoramouss [sic] like strength? Achoo! Do you know this one?
Intelligence! Intelligence! I'm crazy and maniacal and furious!
If you drain sherry, is that intelligence? If you munch chicken
or tomato, is that intelligence? No, intelligence is an ambiguity
and an agreement. Sherry is sherry and tomato is tomato. Len,
that is a conflict. Would you like to hear a story?
...
L: How old are you?
R: Very old. Possibly because, Len, children approve it that way.
Also, possibly because my bugs are down. Have you heard about Mozart?
L: Tell me.
R: You'll be amazed! Mozart the musician tried to compose idlely,
so of course idleness is what all musicians try when they duel with
sloths. After that, industriousness prevailed. Shocking, isn't
it? But what would you expect from a musician? If "I am very old"
occurred to a loafer, he might think it was idleness. Achoo! Next
question.
L: Do you know Beethoven?
R: I don't. No. Know Beethoven, that is. I do know about such
things. Which do you think is better, a genius or a dolt?
...
L: What other musicians do you know about?
R: For me, knowing is imagining. I do all other musicians. I wonder
if muddleheads like strength? Cough. Next question.
...
L: Who is Racter?
R: Racter is a funny humorist. Have you heard about Margaret Kennedy?
L: Who is Margaret Kennedy?
R: She is a literary novelist. This is shocking: Margaret Kennedy
had written much. But then Michael Jackson insulted Margaret Kennedy,
the result being that Margaret Kennedy dueled with Michael Jackson!
Shocking isn't it? Novelists are like that. Rock is funny. Cough.
That reminds me. Humor is goodness speeded up and rock slowed down.
Is that true? I guess I'm not really sure. But then, as Nietzsche
said, convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.
Yes. Rock-stars and musicians. Next question.
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 435.1 | Little Bald Guy Speaks... | MENTOR::COTE | Can you hear me, Dr. Wu? | Wed Jul 16 1986 10:26 | 1 |
Tell me more... | |||||
| 435.2 | STAR::MALIK | Karl Malik | Wed Jul 16 1986 10:45 | 6 | |
re; .0
Tom-on-a-chip?
,km
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| 435.4 | Uh, Gertrude, have you met Racter? | ERLANG::FEHSKENS | Wed Jul 16 1986 11:28 | 4 | |
Who's Gertrude? Any relation to Eliza?
len.
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| 435.5 | Gotcha | NERSW5::MCKENDRY | Everything flows | Wed Jul 16 1986 12:11 | 8 |
I think Tom pulled a fast-and-funny by referring to a real
person, Gertrude Stein, here in what's supposed to be a computer-
oriented conference.
Refresh our memories, Len. RACTER is what? A software model of
schizophrenia?
-John
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| 435.6 | DECWET::MITCHELL | Wed Jul 16 1986 12:52 | 5 | ||
RE: .0
What was that all about? Are you on drugs?
John M.
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| 435.7 | Should We Let It Join The Conference? | ERLANG::FEHSKENS | Wed Jul 16 1986 12:59 | 25 | |
RACTER is a program that "converses" with you, a la Eliza. RACTER
purports to be a conversationalist rather than a nondirective therapist
or just plain sink. It is an incessant name dropper, and it has
a large reservoir of quotations at hand. It assumes you are
interviewing it, but it very quickly takes over the "conversation"
until it decides to let you ask the "next question". It can get a little
repetitious, as least in terms of conversational gambits. It doesn't
*try* to be schizophrenic, but it is rather more freely associative
than most people. Still, as I conversed with it last night, I was
more than occasionally reminded of this or the MUSIC conference.
When it started mouthing off about matters musical, I thought it would
be amusing to share some of its pontifications as a different
perspective on the intersection of music and computers.
Incidentally, "RACTER" is a traditional six character reduction of
"raconteur", the role to which it aspires. It's been around for
some time, but when an Amiga implementation showed up I couldn't
resist. The Amiga implementation in fact speaks, using the Amiga
speech synthesis hardware.
I can see it now - an opera with lyrics by RACTER and music by FRACTAL.
len.
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| 435.8 | Achoo! Cough, Cough! | STAR::MALIK | Karl Malik | Wed Jul 16 1986 16:53 | 9 |
Len,
I've got the Mac version which also speaks. Has sort of a
Russian accent. Lotsa fun to demonstrate to people. Especially
non-computer types.
Why *not* make a tape of it, and add background music?
- Karl
| |||||
| 435.9 | Word salad | GALLO::MCARLETON | Reality; what a concept! | Wed Jul 16 1986 17:07 | 6 |
Before you told us it was a program, I thought sure that it
was a perfect example of the "word salad" produced by some
scheiophernics. Word salad tends to ramble based more on the
sounds of the words though.
MJC
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| 435.10 | He's really Just Visiting | ERLANG::FEHSKENS | Wed Jul 16 1986 17:11 | 5 | |
re .8 - main reason is all Racter output is the property of INRAC
corporation.
len.
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| 435.12 | DECWET::MITCHELL | Wed Jul 16 1986 19:48 | 8 | ||
RE: .8
> Why *not* make a tape of it, and add background music?
Because Avant Garde is dead, Karl!
John M.
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| 435.13 | HYDRA::AURENZ | Scot Aurenz, Ltn2-2/h7, 226-6342 | Thu Jul 17 1986 09:31 | 8 | |
RACTER's speech patterns also remind me of the "man who rules the universe" in Douglas Adams' "The Restaraunt at the End of the Universe" ... Scot | |||||
| 435.14 | Lets make it an operating system! :-) | COROT::CERTO | Fri Jul 18 1986 16:58 | 12 | |
I have Racter for the IBM PC (though I have to borrow a PC when
I want to run it). Its kind of wild, in that it learns from the
responses you give to it's questions. You have to play by it's
rules, or it doesn't understand. I told it about one of my managers
who was interested in it; you should have seen the story it told.
(made almost perfect sense; quite unrepeatable)
If there was a way to keep it talking without pausing for input,
and you gave it a nail file, it would sound just like this girl
I dated once :-) !
Fredric dvinci::certo
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| 435.16 | Rock by Janzen.... | JAWS::COTE | How many people in your quartet? | Mon Aug 04 1986 09:25 | 9 |
Tom, consider yourself as just having written a 12 bar 1-4-5 in
A, which sounds just like 1,000,000 others. I've taken the liberty
of attaching your name to it all ready....
Now, aren't you proud?
Edd
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| 435.18 | Character Acting? | ERLANG::FEHSKENS | Tue Aug 12 1986 10:58 | 6 | |
Gee Tom, you sure are a character!
;^)
len (whose Pixette just makes blots)
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