Introduce Presentations

Prompt

Choose one of the three positions below: Defend it with reference to the reading (including citing whom you disagree with). You must defend one of these three positions even if you don't agree with it entirely.

A. Bots are viruses that pollute public discourse to the point of making respectful online conversation impossible.

B. Bots are exciting vectors for expressing ideas about the world in surprising new ways that can unsettle assumptions.

C. Bots can create strangely beautiful things that are worth looking at, but don't "participate" in cultural conversations.

Computer assisted creativity

The "Turing Test":

Are there imaginable digital computers which would do well in the imitation game?

The "Turing Test":

Are there imaginable digital computers which would do well in the imitation game?

An operationalization. Intelligence is defined by interations with people.

Bot taxonomy

Bots exist on two dimensions

  1. The complexity of their algorithm for understanding language;
  2. The complexity of the choices engineered into them.

Search Bots

Composed of

https://twitter.com/NYPLEmoji

Pentametron

High complexity of search function, no returns.

Encylopedic Bots

Every Word

The dictionary

Census Maps

Mad Lib bots

TwoHeadlines

AhaBlessed

Anti-slavery

Learning Bots

Markov Bots

LTSMs

Deep Drumpf

Ramsay

Stephen Ramsay on Computer Music

http://botpoet.com/

Who are the special robots in your life?