everyone should play

so yesterday i proved merleau-ponty wrong, way wrong, as i walked along with my tripod and walked it right into the phone booth. boundaries shmoundaries whatever. poor tripod.

a little earlier tonight universaldonor and i were playing 20 Quesions with an AI computer program. the neat thing about it is that as a part of its learning process after a round is played, it displays "spontaneous knowledge" it acquired, which is basically deductive recombinations of information acquired during this round with previously stored information, and a list of contradictions, which is when infrormation you provided in your answers contradict the previously provided median of "common knowledge" about the given subject, and also "things I did not know" category which sums up all new information the computer learned from this round.

I picked "patriotism" for my answer. The computer got pretty close, guessing "marketing" on the 20th questoin and "philosophy" on the 23rd. This is the list it came up with in the debriefing.

KNOWLEDGEBASE UPDATED

Spontaneous Knowledge

Patriotism probably doesn't have a hard outer shell
Patriotism is probably not mass produced
Patriotism is probably not hard
Patriotism probably doesn't weigh more than a duck
Patriotism probably doesn't have flippers
Patriotism is probably not generally found outdoors
Patriotism is probably not the larval stage of an insect
Patriotism might not stick to metal
You might not walk on patriotism
Patriotism probably doesn't come from an animal
Patriotism is probably not flat
Patriotism is probably not celestial
Patriotism is probably not granular
Patriotism probably doesn't breathe
You might not sleep on patriotism
Patriotism is probably not a human body part
Patriotism is probably not a type of tree
Patriotism probably doesn't provide shade
Patriotism is probably not a medical instrument
Patriotism probably doesn't have laces
Patriotism is probably not an astronomical body
Patriotism is probably not used by hand
Marketing is probably not an input device
You might not smoke patriotism
Patriotism is probably not used for transportation
Patriotism probably doesn't mark its territory
Patriotism is probably not an ingredient of beer
Patriotism might not cause disease
Patriotism probably doesn't keep papers in place
Patriotism is probably not a pizza topping
Patriotism probably doesn't nest on top of chimneys
Patriotism is probably not a type of grain
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Contradictions

You would not use patriotism to communicate to others
Patriotism is not artificially built by human beings
You might not be able to find patriotism in an office
You might not control patriotism
Michael Jordan would use patriotism
It does not matter if our answers disagree, overtime my answers will change to reflect common knowledge. The best way to fix these contradictions is to play again.
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Things I didn't know

You cannot buy patriotism at a store
Patriotism is considered helpful to humans
Patriotism does not contain things
Patriotism is not used in the water
Patriotism is probably not spontaneous
Patriotism does not have writing on it
Patriotism does involve contact with other humans
Patriotism is used by the police
Patriotism cannot be heard
Patriotism is involved in movies
Patriotism is not usually visible
Patriotism is comforting
Patriotism does not sit in your lap
You cannot wear patriotism on your Willy
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Play again   /  Logoff (quit)