Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
The Infinite Adventure Machine Generates Fairy Tale Plots
The Infinite Adventure Machine is an artificial intelligence project that is intended to generate plots for fairy tales.
The device does not deliver finished stories, but rather presents a synopsis and illustrations for a human user, who embellishes the story using their own imagination.
(The Infinite Adventure Machine (prototype 01) video)
I chose fairy tales because they are a good example of stories with a function: the transition from childhood to adulthood. So I imagine this being used by children and/or parents, for example as a bedtime story. It could also be a family game, although there is no scoring system.The important thing is that it's a computer program which prompts creativity and interaction between people, so it could work in different situations. Someone from an children improvisation theatre in the US got in touch, and they are interested in using TIAM in their shows. It is not quite ready for that yet, but fairy tale battles on stage might indeed be happening in the near future!
SF readers might recall the verse transcriber from J.G. Ballard's 1971 short story Studio 5, The Stars.
Also, the electronic bard from Stanislaw Lem's 1965 work The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age has a variety of advanced techniques for generating stories:
Trurl let the machine warm up first, kept the power low, ran up the metal stairs several times to take readings )the machine was like the engine of a giant steamer, galleried, with rows of rivets, dials and valves on every tier) - till, finally satisfied all the decimal places were where they ought to be, he said yes, it was ready now...Now that the potentiometers indicated the machine's lyrical capacitance was charged to the maximum, and Trurl, so nerous his hands were shaking, threw the master switch...
(Read more about Lem's electronic bard)
Update 17-Aug-2024: Consider also the bard from Someday, a 1956 short story by Isaac Asimov.
(Bard from 'Someday' by Isaac Asimov)
End update.
Via WMMNA, which also has a nice interview with the designer of The Infinite Adventure Machine, David Benque. Thanks to our friends at Frolix 8 for finding this story.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 9/8/2011)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 2 )
Related News Stories - (" Artificial Intelligence ")
Light Society: Simulates Earth-Scale Society With A Billion AI Agents
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...' - Stanislaw Lem, 1965.
Collective Superintelligence Is At Hand!
'Maybe the individual intelligence of each Cubic pools into a group intelligence...' - Edmond Hamilton, 1942.
AI Operates An Excavator
'So far as I could see, the thing was without a directing Martian at all.' - HG Wells, 1898.
Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.' - James Blish, 1957.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Birds Learn To Sing Pictures ala Frank Herbert's Distrans
'We will fight in the time of fighting.'
ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'?
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
Orb Nomad Zero-Emission Electric Aircraft
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
ICE Buys Shock Gloves Like Batman's
What else is the Caped Crusader using?
Factories In The Sky Will Surpass Those Of Earth
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
Sleeper Drones Lie in Wait
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
Warfare Goes Underground In Ukraine
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
3D Printed Organs From Space
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo
'At first I was struck by the large size of these bees..'
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
How To Settle An Argument Between Two Robots
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
The Wind Phone Calls Those Who Have Passed On
'Only I heard that!'
Don't Want To Wear A TIght Shiny Bodysuit?
'He looked a good bit like an elderly, fat beetle.'
Light Society: Simulates Earth-Scale Society With A Billion AI Agents
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
