Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.ai.philosophy
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!europa.chnt.gtegsc.com!news.mathworks.com!newshost.marcam.com!zip.eecs.umich.edu!caen!hearst.acc.Virginia.EDU!murdoch!usenet
From: Babar <pbb3a@fermi.clas.virginia.edu>
Subject: Re: Robert James Waller
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: st3.itc.virginia.edu
Message-ID: <DAx53o.LLq@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
Organization: University of Virginia
References:  <DAx3zp.II@Virginia.EDU>
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 1995 05:11:48 GMT
Lines: 30
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:30963 comp.ai.philosophy:29251

jhg4k@Virginia.EDU (John Hamilton Garland) wrote:
>
> Apparently that rumor about the WALLER books is true.  And
> (apparently) it has been circulating quite a lot in the last
> few days.  
> 
> From what I've heard, the program responsible for the books was
> written by Douglas Hofstadter, who is in the computer science
> department at Indiana University.  WALLER, in addition to being
> the surname of Robert James, is the acronym that describes the
> program that produced the stories.  Hofstadter and Waller are 
> apparently long-time aquaintances.
> 
> Needless to say, the program was provided with a fair amount of
> requisite material with which to weave its stories; and, as
> well, the stories were somewhat edited and embellished by
> Hofstadter and Waller after the computer had spitted them out.
> Nevertheless, the books (i.e., their plots, characters, even
> dialogues) were generated by one computer program.
> 
> That is so far all the information I could get.  But I really
> assume all of this will break big-time in the printed and
> broadcasted media some time in the next day or so.  I mean, I
> really don't see how Waller or Hofstadter could stay silent for
> much longer.  In fact, I find it quite hard to believe that
> they've kept it so quiet until just recently.
> 
> The whole thing just completely blows my mind.

Would somebody please tell me what this is all about.
