I’m not really a fan of Valentine’s
Day, but it did make me think of this. In June 1948, Alan Turing and a small
research team at Manchester University persuaded a stored-program computer to
work for the first time. Turing became a proselytiser for artificial
intelligence, believing that this ‘mechanical brain’ would one day be able to
compete on equal terms with a human brain - to the extent that it would be able
write sonnets as well as Shakespeare, although he conceded that the comparison
was ‘a little unfair’ because a sonnet written by a machine would be better
appreciated by another machine. Using the
1951 model of the Manchester computer, nicknamed the Blue Pig, Turing and his
colleague Christopher Strachey created a programme (using algorithms for building
sentences and synonyms for love from Roget’s Thesaurus) that could produce love
letters, such as:
Darling Sweetheart
You are my fellow feeling. My
affection curiously clings to your passionate wish. My liking yearns to your
heart. You are my wistful sympathy: my tender liking.
Yours beautifully
M.U.C.
And:
Honey Dear
My sympathetic affection
beautifully attracts your affectionate enthusiasm. You are my loving adoration:
my breathless adoration. My fellow feeling breathlessly hopes for your dear eagerness.
My lovesick adoration cherishes your avid ardour.
Yours wistfully
M.U.C.
M.U.C. stands for Manchester
University Computer. He/she sounds like a keeper.
A good deal better than 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.'
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