Comments on: Bots, Demons & Dolls http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2005/10/02/bot-beginning/ a blog and podcast dedicated to discussing text arts forms Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:59:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 en Writer Response Theory 2004-2005 wrt@writerresponsetheory.org (Writer Response Theory) wrt@writerresponsetheory.org Talk Radio Comment-cast: Bots, Demons & Dolls Comment-cast: Bots, Demons & Dolls Writer Response Theory Writer Response Theory wrt@writerresponsetheory.org http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/iTWRT.JPG WRT: Writer Response Theory http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress 144 144 by: WRT: Writer Response Theory » Blog Archive » What is a chatbot? er, chatterbot? http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2005/10/02/bot-beginning/#comment-980 Mon, 16 Jan 2006 04:28:28 +0000 http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2005/10/02/bot-beginning/#comment-980 [...] The terms for discussing chatbots are starting to solidify on this site, thanks to the work of Jeremy and Christy.  I wanted to take some time to open up the discussion to more people and to try to formalize some of our basic terms, especially as I find myself getting to the point in my writing where I need to define them.  The definitions which follow build upon a number of important posts on this site, most notably: Bots, Demons & Dolls. (These definitions represent my current use of these terms and do not reflect official WRT standards).  [...] […] The terms for discussing chatbots are starting to solidify on this site, thanks to the work of Jeremy and Christy.  I wanted to take some time to open up the discussion to more people and to try to formalize some of our basic terms, especially as I find myself getting to the point in my writing where I need to define them.  The definitions which follow build upon a number of important posts on this site, most notably: Bots, Demons & Dolls. (These definitions represent my current use of these terms and do not reflect official WRT standards).  […]

]]> WRT: Writer Response Theory » Blog Archive » What is a chatbot? er, chatterbot? [...] The terms for discussing chatbots are starting to solidify on this site, thanks to the work of Jeremy and ... [...] The terms for discussing chatbots are starting to solidify on this site, thanks to the work of Jeremy and ... by: Jeremy Douglass http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2005/10/02/bot-beginning/#comment-561 Fri, 21 Oct 2005 07:56:34 +0000 http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2005/10/02/bot-beginning/#comment-561 I've also been following the poker-bots stories with some interest - I love these running fire fights between the human and expert systems. Some related issues: <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html" rel="nofollow">The spam wars</a>, in particular the bringing of <a href="http://www.bayesian.org/" rel="nofollow">Bayesian</a> analysis to bear on the problem and the corresponding rise of supermutated prose spam and random content spam. <a href="http://www.captcha.net/" rel="nofollow">The CAPTCHA wars</a>, both the morphed-image text recognition battles (including what is essentially <a href="http://sam.zoy.org/pwntcha/" rel="nofollow">counter-counter-image-recognition</a>) and simpler related obfuscation practices from javascript and image-embedding to simply posting emails such as jdouglass AT removethispart DOT ucsb DOT edu. <a href="http://arimaa.com/arimaa/" rel="nofollow">Arimaa</a> - a very fun game, but more importantly a response to the history of chess computing, and an explicit attempt to optimize a deterministic system to play to the strengths of human vs machine intelligence. I’ve also been following the poker-bots stories with some interest - I love these running fire fights between the human and expert systems. Some related issues:

The spam wars, in particular the bringing of Bayesian analysis to bear on the problem and the corresponding rise of supermutated prose spam and random content spam.

The CAPTCHA wars, both the morphed-image text recognition battles (including what is essentially counter-counter-image-recognition) and simpler related obfuscation practices from javascript and image-embedding to simply posting emails such as jdouglass AT removethispart DOT ucsb DOT edu.

Arimaa - a very fun game, but more importantly a response to the history of chess computing, and an explicit attempt to optimize a deterministic system to play to the strengths of human vs machine intelligence.

]]> Jeremy Douglass I've also been following the poker-bots stories with some interest - I love these running fire fights between the human ... I've also been following the poker-bots stories with some interest - I love these running fire fights between the human ... by: Jeremy Douglass http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2005/10/02/bot-beginning/#comment-560 Fri, 21 Oct 2005 07:25:46 +0000 http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2005/10/02/bot-beginning/#comment-560 In 1999, I was crazy about the idea of Catz - not personally a power user (although I tried it and thought it was a lot of fun), but I found something really compelling about the fact of the online communities trading and designing and sharing pictures etc. - Petz automatically inspired these webring cultures that were different than a lot of the portal-cultures dot-com companies were trying to foster then. There was something that felt authentically folk about them, like the spontaneous outpouring of enthusiasm when people show you vacation slides or wallet photos. In 1999, I was crazy about the idea of Catz - not personally a power user (although I tried it and thought it was a lot of fun), but I found something really compelling about the fact of the online communities trading and designing and sharing pictures etc. - Petz automatically inspired these webring cultures that were different than a lot of the portal-cultures dot-com companies were trying to foster then. There was something that felt authentically folk about them, like the spontaneous outpouring of enthusiasm when people show you vacation slides or wallet photos.

]]> Jeremy Douglass In 1999, I was crazy about the idea of Catz - not personally a power user (although I tried it ... In 1999, I was crazy about the idea of Catz - not personally a power user (although I tried it ... by: Mark Marino http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2005/10/02/bot-beginning/#comment-548 Tue, 18 Oct 2005 04:05:47 +0000 http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2005/10/02/bot-beginning/#comment-548 Welcome, Leonard, would you flesh out some of your thoughts about poker-playing bots and how it fit with your conceptualization of bots? Welcome, Leonard, would you flesh out some of your thoughts about poker-playing bots and how it fit with your conceptualization of bots?

]]> Mark Marino Welcome, Leonard, would you flesh out some of your thoughts about poker-playing bots and how it fit with your conceptualization ... Welcome, Leonard, would you flesh out some of your thoughts about poker-playing bots and how it fit with your conceptualization ... by: Andrew Leonard http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2005/10/02/bot-beginning/#comment-547 Mon, 17 Oct 2005 19:07:04 +0000 http://writerresponsetheory.org/wordpress/2005/10/02/bot-beginning/#comment-547 Well, it's kind of tragic -- but not long after my book was published, I became quite distracted with chasing another story, the free software/open source movement, which had only a tangential relationship to the topic of "bots." So I can't say I have kept up with the field in any kind of rigorous way. However, I was intrigued by the recent rash of stories about online poker-playing bots -- to me, everything represented by the challenges of autonomous poker-playing bots followed directly along the lines I was pursuing in "bots." It could easily have been another chapter. I think that advances in artifical intelligence have continued to move very slowly, but all the same, there have been lots of incremental improvements in software that have made autonomous or semi-autonomous software programs ever more reliable and useful. I also think that what I called the "technodialectic" is still in full force. Technical solutions to problems posed by autonomous software (spambots etc) only result in more sophisticated challenges. And so on and so forth. Well, it’s kind of tragic — but not long after my book was published, I became quite distracted with chasing another story, the free software/open source movement, which had only a tangential relationship to the topic of “bots.” So I can’t say I have kept up with the field in any kind of rigorous way.

However, I was intrigued by the recent rash of stories about online poker-playing bots — to me, everything represented by the challenges of autonomous poker-playing bots followed directly along the lines I was pursuing in “bots.” It could easily have been another chapter.

I think that advances in artifical intelligence have continued to move very slowly, but all the same, there have been lots of incremental improvements in software that have made autonomous or semi-autonomous software programs ever more reliable and useful. I also think that what I called the “technodialectic” is still in full force. Technical solutions to problems posed by autonomous software (spambots etc) only result in more sophisticated challenges. And so on and so forth.

]]> Andrew Leonard Well, it's kind of tragic -- but not long after my book was published, I became quite distracted with chasing ... Well, it's kind of tragic -- but not long after my book was published, I became quite distracted with chasing ...