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Date Posted: 13:47:42 September 03 2003, Wednesday
Author: Factitious
Subject: Re: Factitious Style
In reply to: Mike 's message, "Re: Factitious Style" on 13:38:33 September 03 2003, Wednesday

>>You're reading too much into it. My journal entries
>>are generated as random sequences of words, so any
>>pattern you may perceive is a function of your own
>>mind.
>
>Don't you mean pseudo-random? Or are your entries
>based on readings taken at a quantum level?

There's no point in giving that sort of deep interpretation to my above post. It was a randomly chosen collection of letters; any meaning, semantic or otherwise, is coincidental.

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Replies:

[> [> [> [> Re: Factitious Style -- Albert, 02:56:49 September 06 2003, Saturday


>There's no point in giving that sort of deep
>interpretation to my above post. It was a randomly
>chosen collection of letters; any meaning, semantic or
>otherwise, is coincidental.

I find it hard to believe that they are totally random collections of letters. I have done tests with random collections of characters, with the intent of simulating the classic monkeys and typewriters setup. In several hundred pages of trials, even strings corresponding to four-letter words were a rarity. the chances of having 'random' strings of characters that 'just happen' to correspond to entire paragraphs of sensible English (well, as sensible as you ever get) are astronomically tiny. Especially when based on the entire journal.

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[> [> [> [> [> Re: Factitious Style -- Factitious, 03:00:30 September 06 2003, Saturday

>>There's no point in giving that sort of deep
>>interpretation to my above post. It was a randomly
>>chosen collection of letters; any meaning, semantic or
>>otherwise, is coincidental.
>
>I find it hard to believe that they are totally random
>collections of letters. I have done tests with random
>collections of characters, with the intent of
>simulating the classic monkeys and typewriters setup.
>In several hundred pages of trials, even strings
>corresponding to four-letter words were a rarity. the
>chances of having 'random' strings of characters that
>'just happen' to correspond to entire paragraphs of
>sensible English (well, as sensible as you ever get)
>are astronomically tiny. Especially when based on the
>entire journal.

I agree that it is a rather impressive coincidence. But then, the human mind is adept at pattern-matching, and picks up on "coincidences" more often than one might expect. You may find this hard to believe, but that's wishful thinking on your part.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> Re: Factitious Style -- Maryna, 00:44:08 September 08 2003, Monday

>I agree that it is a rather impressive coincidence.
>But then, the human mind is adept at pattern-matching,
>and picks up on "coincidences" more often than one
>might expect. You may find this hard to believe, but
>that's wishful thinking on your part.

you, sir, are full of shit

ahem.

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> Re: Factitious Style -- Mike, 14:35:02 September 08 2003, Monday

>>I agree that it is a rather impressive coincidence.
>>But then, the human mind is adept at pattern-matching,
>>and picks up on "coincidences" more often than one
>>might expect. You may find this hard to believe, but
>>that's wishful thinking on your part.
>
>you, sir, are full of shit
>
>ahem.

It depends on how recently he has eaten. Generally, though, it is a safe assumption that Ben is full of shit.

Oh, and THIS is a random collection of letters as well! In fact, I wrote a program that just HAPPENED to bring this webpage up, fill in the boxes, and write this message. Totally by chance. Isn't that wild?

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