Questions about projects?

Eliza’s Daughters Chatterbots Julia – MUD agent that provides information as well as entertaining conversation – Fails Turing test Self-absorbed, evasive, and obsessive characters are easier to author Temporal model of character (salesman) Modeling inner life (PARRY and neurotic woman)

Goal-based Behavior Intelligent agents – Lyotard – goals change over time Cognitive simulation combining goals and feelings Interesting and potentially fun and useful but … – “it seems like the very antithesis of what we value in literature, which is the careful examination of ambiguous situations open to multiple interpretations Challenge of purely mathematical models – Ad-hoc rules and glitches enable most human/intriguing actions – Lyotard biting interactor – Shrimp banging head on ground

Multicharacter Environments Simple joining of chatterbots – Zippy meets Eliza – /watch?v=Lr7qVQ3UoSk /watch?v=Lr7qVQ3UoSk Woggles – Difficulty of interactor to focus on important activity – Need for staging

Multicharacter Environments Lessons from commedia dell’arte – High-level scenario implying goals – Stock characters – Set of potential scripts/schemas for action – Improvisation (simulation) for instantiation

Emergent Behavior Autonomous agents, particularly in combination, can walk away from plot Interaction is complex and unpredictable – Ambivalence and the comically neurotic wolf

Emergent Behavior Flat vs. round characters – Flat are more likely to stay in character – Random – flat pretending to be round – Round characters exhibit revelation Consciousness as emergent behavior – Simon’s argument about simulation – Minsky’s meat machines

Emerging Formats Combining broadcast and participatory formats – From sequential, to simultaneous, to merged experience The serial drama archive and hyperserial Other ideas: Branching video, thought track, consensus narrative

Dual Screen Use From study in 2012

Interacting in Virtual Places MUDs (to MMOGs) to VRs Moving from immersion and navigational agency to transformation? Tension between author and participants? Difference between game player and actor? Personal vs. social?

Hamlet on the Holodeck Conclusions Narrative beauty is independent of the medium – It helps us understand who we are and what we are doing here Procedural authorship is key – Need to move from individual to social authorship? Narrative formulas must be refined for great work in a new media – Juvenalia stage is necessary to explore formulas An emerging narrative of complex systems rather than individuals