Using Lisp (or another language) to generate fictional characters

bishop_pass · 2003-12-22T00:05:18

Let's imagine, for the sake of exercising our brains, the way that we could code a program where its purpose is to create a dossier on a fictional character. Essentially, it is the program's task to contrive, imagine, and flesh out a character and a little bit of his history. I'll lay out some basic ideas. In my example, I'll assume that depth is more important than breadth with regard to the program's abilities, therefore, in my example, I'll restrict the domain to a particular region and period. If you wish to elaborate on this whole idea, then explore the idea how you might. For my example, let's assume that domain is the Old West. The first thing we want is a name. Since I'm not up on Native American culture, I'll limit my program to having knowledge of European and Hispanic names. So, we'd provide a database of names. We might create a list of lists like this: ((Smith English) (Sanchez Hispanic) (Bierstadt German) ...) and so on. And for first names, we might create a list like this: ((John English Male Johnny) (Carlos Hispanic Male) (Mary English Female) ...) and so on. Now, first the program decides on an ethnic background and gender, and then proceeds to find a suitable surname, first name, middle name, etc. Notice that a provision can be made for marriages between individuals of different ethnic backgrounds, allowing for leeway in the choosing of first names. From here, the program can recursively create parents of the individual, receving information regarding the birthdate, the surname, etc. Speaking of birthdates, the program will choose a birthdate and age for the character. Also, the program can decide if the character is an orphan or not, and if so, create a guardian who raised the character, or an institution, such as an orphanage, school, etc. After that, the program can create a medical history for the character, based upon any knowledge the program has on common ailments, etc. If there exists knowledge about any disfiguring attributes of any diseases, then such characteristics can be created for the character, such as a limp, etc. Then come accidents. If there were any accidents which caused permananet scarring or some other such maladies, these are recorded. Again, note that such embellishments of character require knowledge with respect to the event. As an example, we might have a list which lists things such as muggings or carriage driving accidents, and the possible resulting wounds which might have happened. Note that we not only create a physical description of the character, but a history which explains how such physical traits were acquired. I'll leave it at that, but obviously there is more to say... [edited by - bishop_pass on October 3, 2003 12:09:49 AM]

Neoshaman

180

November 12, 2003 12:54 AM

it seems that the 'program' structure can be done on paper before implementation (builduing tree struct) isn't it?? is there other kind of representation of the lisp before coding?
i mean visual one, if i understood a little what's going one with the doc i have read, i'm a visual people and work mostly before doing everything with graphic...
i just want to be sure (maybe some subtlety i miss in the syntax which fit better to a scriptural aproach than a visual one)

EDIT:
did bishop_pâss could move this to ai forum
i think it would fit better and wouldn't go 1O pages away in less than half a second

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[edited by - neoshaman on November 12, 2003 1:57:32 AM]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>be goodbe evilbut do it WELL>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

kordova

140

November 16, 2003 03:19 PM

It''s sort of interesting, as I read Digital Mantras and experiment further with this system, I begin to see where the functions and system I''ve defined arenn''t simply limited to this domain. I can envision a twist on it being used in the system hinted at in the Plausible Interlude thread, as well as other things such as Natural Language and Knowledge Systems as the examples for the SHRDLU program in the book uses a system that, if not written in Lisp, certainly seems to stick to many of the same rules. Cheers.

kordova

140

November 16, 2003 03:23 PM

quote:Original post by Neoshaman
it seems that the ''program'' structure can be done on paper before implementation (builduing tree struct) isn''t it?? is there other kind of representation of the lisp before coding?
i mean visual one, if i understood a little what''s going one with the doc i have read, i''m a visual people and work mostly before doing everything with graphic...
i just want to be sure (maybe some subtlety i miss in the syntax which fit better to a scriptural aproach than a visual one)

I think you could certainly outline much of it on paper, though I guess it would sort of depend on your project. What do you mean by "is there other kind of representation of the lisp before coding?"? Also, which document are you referencing that you''ve read? In any event, cheers and your english is very good for someone so new to it.

quote:Original post by Neoshaman
did bishop_pâss could move this to ai forum
i think it would fit better and wouldn''t go 1O pages away in less than half a second

I wish.

bishop_pass

112

Author

November 16, 2003 09:54 PM

quote:Original post by kordova
I wish.

You think?

_______________________________
"To understand the horse you'll find that you're going to be working on yourself. The horse will give you the answers and he will question you to see if you are sure or not."
- Ray Hunt, in Think Harmony With Horses
ALU - SHRDLU - WORDNET - CYC - SWALE - AM - CD - J.M. - K.S. | CAA - BCHA - AQHA - APHA - R.H. - T.D. | 395 - SPS - GORDIE - SCMA - R.M. - G.R. - V.C. - C.F.

kordova

140

November 16, 2003 10:13 PM

quote:Original post by bishop_pass
You think?

?

bishop_pass

112

Author

November 16, 2003 10:17 PM

quote:Original post by kordova
quote:Original post by bishop_pass
You think?

?

I''m asking if you think it should be moved to the AI forum? How much better would it fare over there?

_______________________________
"To understand the horse you'll find that you're going to be working on yourself. The horse will give you the answers and he will question you to see if you are sure or not."
- Ray Hunt, in Think Harmony With Horses
ALU - SHRDLU - WORDNET - CYC - SWALE - AM - CD - J.M. - K.S. | CAA - BCHA - AQHA - APHA - R.H. - T.D. | 395 - SPS - GORDIE - SCMA - R.M. - G.R. - V.C. - C.F.

kordova

140

November 16, 2003 10:20 PM

quote:Original post by bishop_pass
I'm asking if you think it should be moved to the AI forum? How much better would it fare over there?

While, sadly, most people never leave the lounge, it'd probably do more justice to this thread to not be surrounded by and lost among random crap threads whereas it might occasionally be viewed in the AI forum. This thread's not incredibly active as it is obviously though I personally would like to contribute to it over time as I can.

I think this thread ties in nicely with the other associated threads and it would be neat to see them together, not that that will necessarily add to its popularity.

[edited by - kordova on November 16, 2003 11:23:07 PM]

kordova

140

November 17, 2003 10:41 PM

Anyway, I have a few ideas and have some time to spend on the theory as well as implementing and refining the actual code so what do you think the next logical steps are? Are these functions/tools what you had in mind for this or are changes needed? Additions? I''ll probably try a few things I have in mind in the meantime. Cheers.

bishop_pass

112

Author

November 17, 2003 11:45 PM

Well, using similar data structures as already described, I would try and provide knowledge describing generic key events which happen in one''s life, with possible role fillers. Also, those key events would have slots such as ''can-trigger'' and ''often-caused-by'' which in turn point to other generic event types. We might have something like:

leaving-home:
subcategory-of: event
often-caused-by: parental-abuse wanderlust going-to-college
roles: leaver home

And then, we would have:

parental-abuse:
subcategory-of: condition
roles: child parent
abused: child
abuser: parent father mother

Then the system would examine these frames and create particular instances of them. For example:

leaving-home-john:
instance-of: leaving-home
leaver: john
home: johns-home

It''s rough, and just food for thought.

_______________________________
"To understand the horse you'll find that you're going to be working on yourself. The horse will give you the answers and he will question you to see if you are sure or not."
- Ray Hunt, in Think Harmony With Horses
ALU - SHRDLU - WORDNET - CYC - SWALE - AM - CD - J.M. - K.S. | CAA - BCHA - AQHA - APHA - R.H. - T.D. | 395 - SPS - GORDIE - SCMA - R.M. - G.R. - V.C. - C.F.

kordova

140

November 17, 2003 11:57 PM

Alright, a lot of that is pretty much as I had expected. For the most part things exist as a sort of "tree" of "knowledge" as it were. Where I begin to lose myself in it, is once you''ve encoded so much information, how you manipulate it afterwards (at runtime I suppose). Again it''s most likely just my inexperience with more symbolic systems but I''m having difficulty in seeing a way to use this afterwards. Perhaps more thought will bridge the gap for me, as I do have seem to have something of a grasp on either end...

Using Lisp (or another language) to generate fictional characters

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