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A (very small) number of people have asked for a new issue of this newsletter, and have asked why it takes me so long to come out with them. The answer is related to the reaction that the majority of people have upon reading this newsletter: 'Boy, this guy must have a lot of time on his hands!' Actually, I don't (or at least I need to keep up the pretense that I don't), and that's why I don't come out with this thing too often. Particularly so because I like to include the results of at least one or two computer programs. And programming, as you know, takes at least an afternoon.
This is the first issue of 'The Tiny Lobster' to have a theme, and that theme is 'The Word.' What do I mean by 'The Word?' Well, one obvious meaning is the word of God, who makes numerous appearances in this issue, particularly in the puzzle and in the computer generated prayers. However, I am also talking about words in general, particularly computer-assisted word manipulation. This is something I've done quite a bit of at various times in my life. Lexicons (lists of words) are interesting things, particuarly online lexicons. They are easily available sources of data, and provide something unique for computers to chomp on (see 'How to cheat at Scrabble,' in this issue, for a particularly good one). A lexicon contains, encrypted within its words, a history of its people. I am personally convinced that there is quite a bit of unrecorded history encoded into our language, and that using computers, we may one day find a way of teasing these stories out. I'm imagining a kind of 'human genome project' that involves a supercomputer, the Oxford English Dictionary, and some geographic data. The output would be a series of maps with animated lines showing the moving boundaries of various historical invasions, both physical and cultural. For the most part, computer programs are sterile processes, operating in a 'clean room' environment. But when we introduce something as organic and hoary as a lexicon (or a photograph, drawing or musical composition) into the mix, we are breathing life, in a way, into the machine. This is why I often come back to recreational programming that involves words. Among the little programs I have written over the years are a cross word puzzle constructor, an anagram generator, a limerick generator, a pornography generator, numerous natural language parsers and a program that simulates a dialog with a mentalist. Needless to say, better versions of these programs exist elsewhere (most of 'em at least), however I still enjoyed making them. Computer programmers, like teachers, must learn at least a little bit about the subject at hand in order to teach the computer.
Good books read lately:
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