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    Wardrip-Fruin, - Tale-Spin Effect

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    ditors | tware Studies, Expressive Processing Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies Noah Wardrip-Fruin ‘The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England ts have bow vackgrounds, sich Chapter 5 The Tale-Spin Effect The “Metanovel” In fall 1974, James Mechan was a graduate student at Yale University. He had an idea in mind for his dissertation topic, but didn’t know how to pursue it, The topic had been suggested to him by Alan Petlis—one of the most famous figures in US. computer science, who had been named chair of Yale’s department a few years before— on the first day they met. But Perlis didn't know how to move forward with the idea, either. In the preface to his dissertation, Mechan describes the idea this way: A metanovel is a computer progeam that tells stories that only a computer could tell, stories of such complexity of detail that oaly a computer could handle, stories with more flexbilty—even reversibilty—of events and characters than a human could manage. A metanovel time-shating system tells a story to many people at once, 20 ‘wo of whom read the same thing, because they have cach expressed different interests in the events and characters they want to heat about, and because they may each desire a different style of storytelling, And yet, among all these readers, these is bar one story—the Metanovel itself—and each reader is only following those threads of the story that interest hie. (1976, i) Mechan’s dissertation dida’t set out to create a metanovel but rather 1o make progress toward the possibility. As he notes, “If I've been successful, we't a little closer than we were” In the decades since, his work has become a landmatk—the first project cited in nearly every discussion of story generation, of Neekan's cigs, ter aspects of ich focus onthe mismatch between te bear of Kens system and tries the behavior of eran storytellers, Computer systems had certainly produced stories as output before. The most famous of these was the “qutomatic novel writer” produced by Sheldon Klein and his collaborators (1971) at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, But the ficld has generally followed Mechan’s titique of Klein's system: it was made up of explicit chunks of action, with a path through these chunks selected randomly? So, for example, Klein's system includes a “rule for people arriving at George's living 00m” (27), Mechan’s system, on the other hand, contains general rules for character movement (and reasons for movement) that operate no matter which spaces are available—living rooms, bedrooms, caves, or meadows. More broadly, this points to the two main types of systems for creating variable fictions. Klein's system, like quest flags and Choose Your Oam Adventure books, is composed of explicit chunks of story content. If one of these is changed or removed, not much else changes. At most, if some story chunks are only accessible by passing through others, when a chunk is removed other chunks may become impossible to reach, Mechan’s system, on. the other hand, models story as a relatively fine-grained set of processes and data that are used to generate story events. In the case of TaleSpin, this is accomplished by creating a simulated world, processes for behavior in and of the world, and characters and objects that populate the world. As a result, changing one aspect of the simulation (such as 2 rule for character movement of the existence of a particular object) can lead to wildly different TaleSpin fictions. This kind of flexible model has become « defining characteristic for the pursuit of story generation. 16 Basis for tt ‘The breakthr forward towa scruffy actif and Robert A fall 1974, and processing s¢ weekly battle ¢ victims” such, Many of field of com; previous work For example, i language to at and dictionary instead propo of semantic n expressions. Information Pra serve as an dn from any one by translating representation an internal me AL projects, | and inference by Schank an Shin followed dependency ¢ But under than simply 1 context. “Mas The Tale-Spin Effect duced stories Basis for the Model | these was the 2 ‘The breakthrough that allowed Mechan to see a path \don Klein and forward toward the metanovel was exposure to the £ Wisconsin at scruffy artificial intelligence (AT) ideas of Roger Schank vwved Mechan's j and Robert Abelson. Schank had just arrived at Yale in | up of explicit = fall 1974, and Meehan enrolled in his natural language | these chunks processing seminar—which Meehan described as “a Klein's. system ‘weekly battc of ideas” featuring favorite “guest speakec/ Seorge’s living victims” such 2s Abelson (1976, i). | hand, contains _ Many of Schank’s theories were developed in the | id reasons for a field of computational linguistics, where he argued that [ch spaces are a previous work was fundamentally flawed in its approach. | or mendows 3 For example, in the area of computer translation from one | main types of language to another, projects based on syntactic parsing dlein's system, ‘and dictionary-style substination had largely failed. Schank | ture books, is > instead proposed a language-independent representation | teat I one of = of semantic meaning, which he called concpfual dopendensy | se changes. At a expressions. As Schank (19752) desesibes themin Concyptual | le by passing ; Information Procesing, such semantic representations could | other chunks a serve as an interlingua, so that the translation of a statement ats system, on from any one language to another could be accomplished ly fine-grained by translating that statement to and from the semantic ‘generate story : representation. Such a representation could also serve as | accomplished = an internal meaning sepresentation—or data format—for for behavior - AT projects, helping in processes such as paraphrasing 4 objects that : and inference making, as demonstrated in systems built one aspect of ‘ by Schank and his students (see sidebae: Yale AI), Talk ter movernent : Spin followed this lead, operating in terms of conceptual lead to wildly dependency expressions. exible model 4 But understanding the meaning of sentences, rather he pursuit of than simply their structure, requires understanding their context. “Mary hit John” probably means different things, Expressive Processing Yale Al James Mechan’s Tafe-Spin isthe only project | discuss in detail that was developed at Yale University's Artificial Intelligence (A) laboratory. However, the Yale Al Project ‘and the worldview of Roger Schank, its charismatic leader, were central to the evelopment ofthe strand of work that connects 2 number of my central examples. ‘This Is especialy true of Tale-Spin, Michael Lebowitz’s Universe, Scott Turner's ‘Minstrel, and the ideology mode! for Michael Mateas et a's Terminal Time, In 1987 Stephen Slade published an article looking back on a dozen years of projects following Schani’s arrival at Yalo, In reviewing the largest body of work, that described as “cognitive modeling," Slade notes how it largely continued in the mold set by the Margie system, developed by Schank and his students during his time at Stanford University (before Yale). Specifically, Slade notes Margie's: Task Orientation, An Al program should address a specific, real-world task. ‘The rogram should model something that a person actually does, rather than an artificial abstraction of inteligent behavior. Margie's tasks included reading, paraphrase, and translation. Psychological Process Model. The Margie program was @ cognitive simustion Not onty did it ry to perform tasks that people perform, but i tried to simulete ‘the manner in which the human mind works. By comparison, a computer chass program which exhaustively searches ahead several moves may be abe to play a ‘ine game of chess, bu itis unrealistic to consider such a program a model of the ‘way in which a person plays chess. Canonical Representation of Knowledge. The heart of the Margie ystom was the ‘conceptual dependency knowledge representation system. CD provided a means (of representing actions and states in a canonical, language independent fashion, ‘A concept represented using the dazen CD primitives might be expressed in any ‘number of ways in any numberof languages... (68) All three of these Schank-driven priorities are clearly evident in Tale-Spin, as this ‘chapter's discussion makes clear. They also deeply inform the backaround of the other Yale-related projects | consider, as well as influencing and reflecting the broader Al research of the era, especially that which could be termed “scruffy.” With these goals in mind, the motivations for cartain systern-design choices should be | ‘easier to understand as | discuss them in the pages ahead, 118 if Jobn is M: at Mary’s bla of projects together the stories with « same task. that would bi primary goal the causal 1 step was at for certain ro or catching « succeeded in accidents) by sentences of an internal sc But Tale scripts are “s great story 1 for theorizing elements of bs around Abels central Al ct place just as results looke “The Tale status of Sch behavior In were data. T patterns 10 « stories being developed AI Project tral to the examples, ft Tumer's 8 years of ¥¥ of work ued in the during his 's: | ¢ task cr than cading, lation imulate rohess > play a ofthe as the ‘mean ashion sin any tn, 28 this und of the ecting the vy.” with should be The Tale-Spin Effect if John is Mary’s sparring partner or if John is sitting at Mary's blackjack table. This fact motivated a series of projects directed by Schank that attempted to bring together theorizing about how humans understand stories with the building of computer systems for the same task. The systems were viewed as experiments that would help refine and validate the theories, and a primary goal was developing theories for understanding Ne fest the causal relationships between clements step was a theory of sripts—that human knowledge for certain routine situations (eg, going to a restaurant of catching a bus) exists as stereotyped sequences of common events. Computer systems were built that succeeded in interpreting simple stories (eg, of auto accidents) sentences of the stories and corresponding clements of yy determining relationships between the aa internal seript, ‘But Tab-Spin lagely avoids septs. As Meehan puts it, sctipts are “so developed that they're uninteresting: not great story material” (1976, 213), Sctipts only allowed for theorizing and system building about the least novel clements of hummaa life. The next step was to build systems around Abelson’s and Schank’s developing versions of the central AI concepts of plans and goal ‘This was taking place just as Schank artived at Yale, and to Meehan the sesults looked like mach better story material? ‘The TaleSpin system produces stories by changing the status of Schank’s and Abelson’s theories about planning Dehavior. In story-understanding systems, these theories, were data, They were used by the system processes as patterns to compare against the behavior described in stories being interpreted. But in TaleSpin they become [ 2. stam aces Neha’ pinion of ‘he elatie interest va of tres about cris ves those abut pars inside Computer| esta Mery sores (parity te more intresting ona) rt oat ene ew Notes continued at end oft capi. | Expressive Processing process, used to create a world in which characters behave E permanently according to the theories. As Meehan puts i: copy of i TaleSpin includes a sisoulator of the real world ; Ongoing, Turn it on and watch all the people. The purpose : -was made po | ofthe simulator is 10 model rational behavior; 4 fictions prod the people are supposed to act like real people. : | (1976, 107) foem the ba | 4 Spin, wich | Most TaleSpin stories don’t featare “people” thet are 3 dissertation 5 | human characters, however. Instead, the people are TalesSpin's pe largely bitds, bears, bees, foxes, and so on. This was about its dat | Schank’s suggestioa, inspired by, as he puts it, “the fact q : science disev tha [had lie is a he sim eo Tas taking up sytem 2 {stories} and trying to see how fl] did it?” Iealso served to For man compensate, Mechan writes, for the fact that “we weren't a » TalesSpin fice ‘going to get very sophisticated or elaborate outpat fom : never learne this program’ (2006). In other words, the decision to tell 3 q tolearn abou ‘animal stories is an example of the common AT approach . both with d ‘of defining a mrioword in which the program will operate. : berween tho: Jast as some Al researchers demonstrated progeams that 3 only savy its could understand the physics of a simplified “blocks a After ea wold” (allowing them to ignore issues such as the relative : even more d strength of material), TaleSpin operated in a simplified : foracopy of animal world resembling the settings for Aesop's fables Tale Spin (M (shaving complexity both from the possibilies of che But this wa ‘world and the potential motivations of the charseters). i interested m | : formersoade | Tale-Spin Today of Californi Today Tak-Spinis one of the most widely discussed digital a pleasant cc fictions ever produced. It is not only a couchstone for and he looks computer science accounts of story generation but also 3 traces of Tal broadly cited in writing about digital literature and the s “After sor | future of fiction, Atthe same time, TalsSpinitself seemed : locating a e¢ 120 acters behave al world: + purpose behavior; we weren't output from scision to tll Al approach sill operate. rogyams that | fed “blocks | as the relative 1a simplified cesop’s fables ites of the ‘haracters) cussed digital uchstone for tion but also ture and the itself seemed The Tale-Spin Effect permanently lost during most of this conversation —unti a copy of its code was unearthed in 2008. Ongoing discussion of this seemingly lost software ‘was made possible by two facts. First, many examples of fictions produced by TalsSpin ase in circulation. These form the basis of most humanistic discussions of Tale- Spin, which vend to be dismissive. Second, Meehan’s dissertation gives detailed accounts of the operations of TaleSpi’s processes, along, with significant information abouts data. This serves as the basis for most computer science discussions of TaleSpin, which tend to treat the system as worthy of serious engagement. For many years I was only exposed to examples of TaleSpin fictions, which I found so uninteresting that I never learned more about the system, But once I began to learn about TaleSpin’s processes I became fascinated— both with the system itself, and the differing attitudes between those who understood the system and those who only saw its output, ‘After reading Meehan’ dissertation, began to look for even more detailed sources of information and especially foracopy of the software itself Thad previously seen Miro ‘TaleSpin (Meehan 1981), a smaller, pedagogical version, But this was so simplified that it lacked most of what interested me about TaleSpin. Through Walt Scacchi, 2 versity formerstudent of Mechan's feombis time atthe Us of California at Irvine, I got an email introduction. Thad a pleasant correspondence with Mechan, now at Google, ‘and he looked through his garage on my behalf—secking. traces of TaleSpin—but his intial search came up empty, ‘After some further searching, I gave up hope of ever locating a copy of Tal-Sin? But thea, in Match 2008, I 121 [ 5. mene stage ‘ny search bepan whan seed fom Meahan abot snot ieraton ofthe sytem, ore crix than the "mero" version, rot fo tho 1987 Sacto | cab at he Boston ‘Computer Museu Unfortunately. Notes contin a end of tis chapter. Expressive Processing 4 Though tobe sorpubesly acct, ‘o my tnonledge | Weintauen only } csriutes te verati coe or the Doct sri Hs Dubro on re tea syst, hanes, wor opi enough to make independent reimplenenition relatively easy. received an email from Meehan that began: Never say never. I'm in the provess of moving to a smaller place (in San Francisco), which means going through every box and deciding what to Keep and what not to keep. Lo and behold, I found 2 ptint-out of the complete source of TakSpin It’s about 4K lines of MLISP, printed on fan-fold paper. Theres even a cross-reference table at the end. (2008) Hesent me the listing, which gives acomplete specification of Tale Spin’s processes (Mechan 1980). Unfortunately, he did not turn up a listing for any of the accompanying data— files, However, this still opens the possibility for us to learn again from TakSpin, as we do today from Eliga/ Doctor. Jn particular, it gives us the opportunity for knowledge through personal interaction, programmatic substitution and deformation, and examination of the code, rather than simply from reports of its processes ‘The best first step is probably to follow Warren Sack's lead and translate the code from MLISP into Common LISP, as he did with ‘Micro TaleSpin (Meehan and Sack 1992) ‘My discussion hete emerges from my study of Mechan's 1976 dissertation and 1980 source code. As it happens, some of the most interesting lessons I perceive atise from a kind of inversion of the Hlize effect. Rather than a surface illusion of process complexity and intelligence, TaleSpin creates a surface illusion of process simplicity and arbitrary action. Te is far from alone in this, As a result, I believe understanding the more general Tale.Spin effect can provide insights for both authors and intespreters of digital fictions, as well as those who seek to understand computational systems broadly. A Tale-s TalesSpin, as storytelling audience to would, ‘hil production dissertation story, about to illusteate Creating Tale Spin 2 and the re results in 2 of facts fo the story told ¢ imulat for the bes gives the b of story ch bear, create exists, mar and lets be Dear is in 1 Acchur, an created (al a meadow other's list other exist location, This kei conceptual The Tale-Spin Effect ‘ A Tale-Spin Story Fee he tie mode, | noving to 4 TedeSpin as described in Mecha disertation, ha three | Mevanwwieé [ame storyteling modes, Two modes areinteractive, asking the | Ss is sh la Yioond 1 audience to make decisions about features of the story | as'TheFox ad te | Tab Spin ‘world, while one mode “fixes” the world to assure the | Hw ard “The Ant |» fan-fold " production of particular stories’ Chapter 11 of Mechints MMe” bana S dissertation gives a detailed account of an interactive | . story, about a hungey bear named Arthur, that I will use | specification S to illustrate Tale Spin’s operations and their backgrounds, ortanately, he : apanying data : Creating a World | rustolearn ‘TaleSpin asks what characters to use for the story, | Bliza/ Doctor. a and the reader chooses a bear and bird. Each choice |r knowledge e results in a “picture procedure,” creating the basic set |: substitution : of facts for that character that will be used to make up | code, sather the simulation but won't necessarily appear in the final | rhe best first 4 story told to the audience. For example, the procedure and translate for the bear creates a bear, chooses the bear's gender, wshe did wich 4 gives the beat a name, adds the bear's same to the list i e Of story characters, chooses a height and weight for the jay study of : bear, cteates a cave, creates a mountain in which the cave vecode. Asit ; exists, marks the cave as being the home of, the bear, ans [perceive s and lets both the bear and the system know that the Elia effect. ; beat is in the cave. In Meehan’s story the bear is named 5 complexity Asthus, and by similar means a bird named George is ¢ illusion of | created (along with a nest, a maple tree for the nest, and is far from : a meadow for the tree). Each character is added to the standing the other's lit of acquaintances, so they know that each insights for : other exist, and they each have an idea of the other's fictions, as - location. smputational . ‘This kind of information is represented in Schank’s conceptual dependency expressions. While Schank’s Expressive Processing 6. Tis example and the ane above are adapt rom Meshar's dissertation (1976, 195-196)—substiting oer charac wit those inthis soy published accounts at the time represented conceptual dependency expressions using complex diagrams with multiple forms of connectors, software such as Tale Spin used more machine-readable formats. In Tale-Spin, the conceptual dependency expression for “Arthur is in his Cave” could be represented as: ((ACTOR *ARTHURBEAR® IS (*LOG* VAL (‘PROX* PART *CAVE*O)))) Bat much of TalsSpin operates on moze complex conceptual dependency expressions, as the coming pages will reveal. Meehan writes his own English-language representations of these, and I will follow his lead here. Otherwise, even relatively simple ideas such as “Arthur knows that George thinks he’s an idiot” would sequire parsing conceptual dependency expressions that look like this: € ((CON ((CON (ACTOR *ARTHURBEAR® IS (*SMART* VAL (-9))) 1S (MLOC* VAL (*CP* PART *GEORGEBIRD"))) IS (MLOC* VAL (*CP* PART *ARTHURBEAR*)))) Though from here my discussion of ‘TaleSpin will take place using English ranslations of concepmual dependency expressions, looking a bit more at the above examples will help to clatify the structure of these expressions, If one looks at the sepresentation of the idea that Arthur isin his cave, the structure is similar to that for the idea that Arthur is an idiot (his Smart has the value of “9” on a scale that runs from 10 to -10). MLoe is a Mental Location, and in the two cases above itis the 124 CB or Cons wwe might 1 from the ow sentence lik that isin Bear's intel ‘The wo and inferen involving sc dependency The MLoe| events —the a persons 2 play import ate most ca relatively ec a body par object), Fg Grasp (phy sound), and on somethi abstract: Alirans (Ch t0 an object Motivatir Remrning t any miscel “flower,” “ worm, and is currently about the w ed conceptual diagrams with ch as TaleSpin TalesSpin, the cethur is in his nore complex coming pages \plish-language > his lead here ich as “Arthur would require ons that look RBEAR*)))) TaleSpin will 3f conceptual re at the above ture of these tation of the re is similar to 5 Smart has the Ito 10). MLoe above it is the The Tale-Spin Effect CP, or Conscious Processor, of one of the characters. So ‘we might more literally translate the expression above, from the outermost parentheses to the innermost, with a sentence like, “I isin the consciousness of Arthur Bear tacit isin the consciousness of Geonge Bird that Arthur Bear’ intelligence is at a very low level?” ‘The world of TalesSpin changes based on events and inferences from these events. All events are acts, involving some actor taking some action, In conceptual dependency theory, there are only eleven primitive acts, ‘The MLse facts above would likely grow from MTrans events—those that transfer information, either within a person’s memory or between people. Primitive events play important roles in TaleSpin, and the remaining ten axe most casily described in two groups. Seven acts ase rclatively concrete: Prope! (apply force to}, Mase (move a body part), Ingat (take something inside an animate object), Expl (force something out of an animate objec), Grasp (physically grasp an object), Speak (produce a sound), and Attend (direct sense organ toward of focus it on something), The last three acts, like MTTrans are more abstract: PTrans (change the location of something), ATinans (change some abstract relationship with respect to an object), and MBuild (create or combine thoughts)” Motivating Action Returning to Acthus’s story, the audience is asked whether aay miscellaneous items should be" created: “berries.” “lower;” “river?” and “worrn.” The audience chooses worm, and it is created along with the ground where it is currently located. The audience is asked who knows about the worm, and chooses Arthur Beat. TalesSpin now 7.This summary ‘rams Shank’ Concept internation Processing (1788, 41-4 | | | Expressive Processing hhas enough information to ask who the main character of the story will be: THIS IS A STORY ABOUT 1: GEORGE BIRD 2 ARTHUR BEAR ‘The audieace chooses Arthur, and then is asked about his problem: HIS PROBLEM IS THAT HE (S J;HUNGRY 2: TIRED 3: THIRSTY 4 HORNY. ‘The world of Tak-Spin revolves around solving problems, pasticulatly those represented by four “sigma-states” Signa Hunger, SigmaThirt, Signa-Rest, and Signa-Sex. ‘These, as one might imagine, represent being hungry, thirsty, tired, and—in the system's terminology—horny, respectively. ‘These problems are solved using Schanke’s and Abelson’s approach to planning. Schank characterizes planning this way in his paper “Using Knowledge to Understand”: A Plan is the name of a desired action whose realization may be 2 simple action (f] conceptualization involving a primitive ACD). However, if itis realized that some state blocks the doing of that action, the plan may be translated into @ deltact to change the state that impedes the desired ACT. Thus, a Plan has attached to it a ‘gfoup of deltacts with tests for selecting between them. (19758, 119) So, for example, if—-by unlikely circumstance—Arthur forms a plan to eat when he already has honey in front of his mouth, all he has to do is the primitive act of Ingesting the honey. But if Arthur does not already have honey in front of his mouth, the plan will be translated 126 into a deliact w some other foo one that invol hand. If he do some food the idea of deltact comes from A as an attempt t building blocks ‘causing a state some later acti steps from the 1975, 5). Sch ‘what he calls to achieving th For TaleSp that correspon acts’ PTrans, is used when something to ‘changing one’ Neg Proxis use Delta Know is state of some procedure fo: the procedure Dao Final to acquite sor Ip TaksSp acts depend to do someth together into The Tale-Spin Effect character of into a deltact with the goal of getting honey (or perhaps (6, Yestan cals ar a some other food) in front of his mouth. He may choose | detracts in his a a ae Sa | ei, te . cone that involves moving some food there with his | Sysw ani sem hand, If he does not have any food in his hand, getting | cat tum abc in ‘ne 1978 puns some food there may become a state-change goal, This | food there may be state-change goal. This | Wa Were asked about idea of deltacts (or as Meehan calls chem, “delsa-acts”) | ageon 1875). wil i comes from Abelson." He describes his work on them | alms, depending : as.an stempt “develop a set of intention primitives ag | ™¥ns wat 4: HORNY building blocks for plans. Each primitive isan act package \————~ | : causing a state change. Each state change helps enable | ag problems, some later action, such that there is a chain or lattice of | igema-states” a steps from the initial states to the goal state” (Abelson | Signa Sexe a 1975, 5). Schank embellished the idea of delacts with j cing hungry, ; what he calls “planboxes.” These are specific approaches ‘ogy-—horny, to achieving the state change. jing Schank’s a For TalsSpin, Mechan implemented three delta-acts | E that cortespond to the primitive conceptual dependency in his paper | acts PThans, MTrans, and ATrans ‘The first, Deite-Pros is used when someone wants to change the state of something to make it neat something else, which includes | action ction (la 2 changing one’s own state to be near something, (Dello Tas a NegProcis used to get something away from somewhere.) translated : Dae Know is used when someone wants to change the impedes x state of someone to know something. Meehan calls his foe procedure for the communicative version of this ‘Telland : the procedure for wanting to find something out oneself vox Finally, Delta-Contralis used when someone wants nce—Arthur, 2 to acquire something, >ney in front : In TaleSpin, many of the planboxes of these delta- nitive act of a acts depend on somehow persuading another character already have to do something, These common planboxes are gathered bbe translated together into a Persuade package, which includes: simply 127 Expressive Processing askings linking the action to a goal thatthe other character is presumed to have, and enabling the action; bargaining; and threatening, Like all planboxes, each of these has preconditions—a character does not ask another to simply tell her something if she believes that the other intensely dislikes her. Similarly, 2 character does not threaten a character she likes 2 lot. Making Plans When the audience chooses hunger as Arthur's problem, Tale-Spin generates the conceptwal dependency expression “Arthur knows that he s hungry.” Thisis then asserted. To understand what this means, it is heipfal to look at figure 5.1, which illustrates the conteol structuse of TaleSpin's simulation ‘One thing that assestion does is add information to memory. TaleSpin’s memory contains information about the structure of the physical world, the structure of sclationships between characters, facts about particular characters, and so on. Every fact in memory is indexed based on who believes it, with true things indexed to the Figure 5:1. Goal stutireof Tabs sus ater eshans Tae 1 128 system, Ev (erue at son hhangey” is: believed by When ¢ the fact bei negative sig conceptual knows tha expression to the asse problem so The nar hunger is 5 eat honey « if Acthur k or knows 80 S-Fhuage honey—an Dons fi starts check it checks ta checks to s structure. I Why do already par of reasons, is alzeady then it mak cheek for d filed goals a character The Tale-Spin Effect other character system, Every fact is also either currently true or “old” | on; bargaining : (erwe nt some time in the past) In this case, “Archus is 1 of these has Iangey” is addled to memory and indexed as something. sk another to : believed by Arthur, that the other When this fact is added to memory, it results in eter docs not the fact being passed to the inference mechanism. For negative sigma-states, the inference mechanism creates ‘conceptual dependency expressions of the form “Arthur knows that Arthur intends not to be hungry” This as Arthu’s = expression represents, of course, a gach When itis passed | al dependency to the assertion mechanism, the result is to invoke the | ye" Thisis then, problem solver, which begins the process of planning, itis helpful to ; ‘The name of the TaleSpin proceduse for satisfying trol structure unger is S-Hanger (For Siga- Hunger). In TalesSpin, bears cat honey and berries. J-Hurger checks memory to see formation to if Arthur knows that he owns some honey ot berries, rmation about ‘or knows where some honey or berries are. He doesa't, steucture of $0 S.Hunge selects a bear food at random—in this case rout patticular 4 honey—and invokes DGont (Delte-Contro) to get some. ory is indexed DCont forms the goal “Arthur has some honey” and indexed to the starts checking the preconditions for its planboxes, First it checks to see if it is already true (it is not). Then it checks to see if this goal is already part of Arthur's goal structure, Its not, 0 itis added Why does DCont check to see if getting honey is already part of Arthue’s goal structure? For a number of reasons, the most obvious of which is because iF a its alzeady his goal (or a subgoal toward a higher goal), then it makes little sense to add it. But another reason to check for the goal’s existence is that TaleSpin also keeps filed goals, and the reasons for their failure, as part of a character's goal structure. Before this was added, Tale Expressive Processing Spin created stories with a certain surreal quality. Here's an example: Joe Bear was hungry. He asked Irving Bird where some honey was. Irving refused to tell him, so Joe offered to bring him a worm if he'd tell him where some honey was. Irving agreed. But Joe dide’t know where any worms were, so he asked Irving, who refused t0 say. So Joe offered to bring him a worm if he'd tell him where a worm was, Irving agreed. But Joc didn’t know where any worms ‘were, so he asked Irving, who refused to say. So Joe offered to bring him a worm if he'd tell him where a worm was. (Meehan 1976, 129-130) In fact, these errorproduced stories—which Mechan called “misspun tales”—are TaleSpi’s most famous ourpurs, much more widely reprinted than anything produced by the completed system. There are a number of seasons for this. Fist is the amusement value. Another is that these stories, hand translated from conceptual dependency expressions by Mechan, have much more fluid prose than stories produced by TalesSpin's companion saturallanguage genezation system, Mumble, Third, these stofies also give 2 hint, simply though their structure, of some of the mechanics of the underlying TalSpin processes. Unfortunately, as I will discuss later, those who attempted to interpret these outputs without any deeper understanding of the Tab-Spin system often reached tather misleading conclusions, Developing Relationships Arthur is trying to get some honey, which is a Dalte Control problem. In TalSpin, the first precondition for DGont’ planboxes is to know the location of the thing to be controlled, Since Arthur does not know where 130 any honey is, “Arthur know trae, and its is added. The is a standard checking a w: one of these of DKwow is fon these mai bur Archu’s moves to the of the Persua A ftiend is so positive value Bird's opinio: that Arthur have only on up on the gi agent to find Relations to Schank’s his work oa relationship state to men mode of ask DOES ARI GEORGE € + ALOT TalesSpin ca states that 4 one, is: Dos The Tale-Spin Effect i be waligy Heres , any honey is, DKnow’ i called. DXnow forms the goal [9 tearing “‘Asthur knows where some honey is.” Its not already) Mestar's dissertation | " : (197,50), The ied where j true, and its not yet part of the goal structure, soit | fvnoraf his m, oie ‘ is added. The first planbox of DKnow is used if there | porion of chapter oe dite is a standard method for finding the information: like | 185 (bid, 170) eles ts stp, 2d Icving, : checking a watch of clock to learn the time. ‘There isate ee ‘one of these for honey in Tale-Spin, so the next planbox Pwo of DKwow is to see if there’s someone who is an expert ay. So Joe a. fon these matters to ask? Bears are experts at honey, Ea iieeed bbue Arthur's the only bear he knows about, so TaleSpin | moves to the next planbox, which is to use the methods lich Meehan of the Perstade package to convince a friend to tell you, xost famous A friend is someone that you think relates to you with a an anything: positive value for affection. Arthur's opinion of George we a number Bird’s opinion of him is unknown. If the audience says due. Another that Arthur doesn’ think they'te friends, Arthur will » conceptual . have only one DKnow planbox left before he has to give much more up on the goal of having some honey: Pasadeing an Scompanion agent to find out the answer and tell him. | ‘Third, these Relationship and personality ‘states ate extensions jie structure, a to Schank’s and Abelsoa’s work created by Meehan for ing, TalbSpin a his work on Tale Spin (1976, 40): Testing memory For a 2 those who: ; relationship state is done by a procedure that adds the tany deeper 3 state to memory if it isn’t there, Since TalesSpin is in the en reached : mode of asking the audience it types DOES ARTHUR BEAR THINK THAT GEORGE BIRD LIKES HIM? his a Det 1: ALOT 2: ALITTLE .3:NOT MUCH 4:NOT AT ALL condition for = ‘Tale-Spin can simultaneously maintain four different of the thing states that are similar to this in memory. The first, this know where S cong, is: Does Actiur think that George tikes him? The i Expressive Processing others are: Does Arthur think that he likes George (ies does Arthur like George)? Does George think that Arthur likes him? Does George think that he likes Acthur (Je., does George like Arthur)? All are used i making different types of plans. ‘The audience says that Arthur thinks George likes him 2 lor, 80 Persnade starts working through its planboxes with the goal of Arthur getting George to tell him where some honey is, in pursuit of the higher goal of getting some honey. The frst planbox is to simply ask, but it has further preconditions. So TolsSpin asks if Arthur feels deceptive toward George (the audience answers: aot at all, if Axthur feels competitive toward George (not atl), if Arthur likes George (@ lod), and if Aetiar thinks that George is trying to deceive him (not 2t al). Finally, Arthur Bear has a plan to know where some honey is, so he can contro it, so he can eat it, so he can be less hungry: he'll ask George Bird. Speculations and Lies From here things begin to go poorly for Arthus, It turns out that George is a deceptive bird and will deliberately tell Arthur about an alternative possible world that isn’t the one of this TalesSpin story. That is, he’s going to lie, and Tale-Spin is going to create a parallel world structure to support this lie, representing the fact that Arthur believes it First, Arthur wants to Te George his sequest. Tell has two planboxes: do it yourself, or get an agent to do it. Arthur starts with the first one, which requires that he be near George. This is a Delta-Prox problem, resulting in the formation of the goal “Archur is neat 132 George,” and going, Since thinks he kn¢ need to start more of the Acthue’s mot P Trans moves to near Geor include Artht has arrived there, Before Speak to tet of characters TaleSpin's fat Heney An bank whe Henry sli tall for Mechan adde location, caus not so lucky Henry A\ iver ban sitting, He drowned. In this versic performed a them both in Bill, butgeav how gravity dependency Returning The Tale-Spin Effect ikes George George,” and the appropriate planboxes of DPrax start Jeorge think : going, Since Arthur knows where he is (the cave) and | that he likes 3 thinks he knows where George is (his nest), there’s no 1 1 are used in a need to start up DKnow planboxes. DLink then creates | 2 more of the wold, so that there’s a connection between, | George likes 2 ‘Arthur's mountain and George’s meadow. Then Do- | its planboxes i Trans snoves Arthur along the ground (bears cannot fly) him where 4 to neat George's maple tree. The inferences from this | al of getting a include Arthur and George both knowing that Arthae | isk, but it has has arrived there, and Arthur knowing that George is | Arthur feels there. Before these sorts of inferences, characters had to | swers: not at 2 Speak to let others know of their presence. This failure | ge (aot at all), a of characters to notice each other created another of ur thinks that : Tale-Spin’s famous misspun tales: 1 Henry Ant was thirsty. He walked over to the river where some é bank where his good friend Bill Bird was sitting, : Henry sipped and fell in the river. He was unable sso he can be to call for help. He drowned. (1976, 128) | ‘Meehan added noticing as an inference from changes in e location, causing Bill to save Henty’ life. But another was ‘thur, Ie curns 4 not so lucky: | eeeeae Henry Ant was thirsty. He walked oversto the | ld tha io 4 river bank where his good friend Bill Bird was | sitting, Henry slipped and fell in the river, Gravity | + going to lie eo drowned. (129) oeld struceure | hat Acthur In this version of Tale-Spin, gravity was a character that i 4 pesformed a Grup on Henry Ant and thea PTRansed | request. Tell them both into the river. Henry got rescued by his friend | an agent 10 . Bil, bot evi had no way nt. This was fied by changing | hich requires E how gravity operates in terms of Schank’s conceptual | rex problem, : dependency expressions —Prapeling Henty instead, { etnur is neat a Returning to our story, once everyone knows Arthur 133 Expressive Processing and George are near each other, Do-MTransis called and Arthur asks George to tell him where some honey is, resulting in a call to the procedure for handling favors: Request. Now there is reason to ask the audience how George views his selationship with Arthur. Tale Spin asks if he likes Arthur (answer: little), if he trusts Arthur (a little), if he thinks he dominates Arthur (not at all) if he feels indebted to Arthur (aot ata), and if he thinks that Arthur trusts him (a litte) Here wie come to the main “psychological action” of this Tak-Spin story. This action is enabled by the Fact that character planning can make use of Tale Spins inference mechanisms. George Bird uses these mechanisms to speculate about the potential impact of answering Arthur's request. “The first inference is an obvious one: Artur will think that George has told him there is honey somewhere. Second, from what George believes about theirseationship, George can make the inference that Arthur will believe that hie believes there is honey in this place. Also, based on the sclationship, he infers that Arthur wil believe there is honey in that place. Finally, George can infer, based on this, that Arne will make a plan to eat the honey. George then takes all of these inferences and, in turn, generates all the infezences from them, We might say that he imagines worlds in which each of these things is true But he doesn't find what he's looking for in any of them ‘As Mechan puts it, he “was looking for an inference that said he was going to be happy (or sad), so that he could decide in favor of (or against) Arthur's request” (1976, 183). So in consultation with the audience, it is decided that George will lie to Arthur, 134 Wheathis tells Arthur i but some of the systems Bee, who ow sedwood tree is part of a1 the system m and honey at ‘When he tell be asked hos “a little?” an are added to Another T Now Arthur ‘As Meehan « Do-MTI renurns & returns 1 ‘The goa Arthur n honey— which re toward 3 DCONT 4976, 1 Nothing go asked how hi reference w Tale Spin honey. Arth found, but tests—he's i The Tale-Spin Effect When this happens, theentire structure of what George tells Arthur is created in the course of the Do-MTrans, but some of it is only indexed to character memory, not | ing favors: | ence how a the system's memory. This leads to the creation of Ivan | eSpin ass a Bee, who owns honey, which is ina beehive, which i in a | s Arthur @ redwood ire, which s surrounded by some ground, which | eal) i he 4 is part of a valle. ‘The physical locations ace indexed to thinks that the system memory theyee seal But at first the hive, bee, and honey are only in Geomge’s memory, and not believed. | action” of When he tells Arthur about them, the audience needs to hae face that z be asked how much Arthur trusts George. The answer is *s inference Ee “a litle? and the inference maker determines that they aanisms 10 ate added to Arthurs beliefs about the worl, answering ; Another Trick ar will chink: a Now Arthur thinks he knows where to find some honey. somewhere. . ‘As Meehan notes, -clationship, , DO-MTRANS retums to REQUEST which believe that 3 returns £0 the first call of DO-MTRANS which oo returns (0 TELL which returns to PERSUADE. eed cn The goal of the persuasion bas been satisfied— exeishoney 4 Archur now thinks he knows where there’s some oy this, that 2 hhoney—so PERSUADE returns to DKNOW | s which retuens to DCONT. ... All this has gone toward achieving only she rst precondition of snd, in tae0, 3 DCONT, finding out where some honey was, ght say that . (1976, 184-185) ings is tue. Nothing goes well for Arthur from here. The audience is ay of them. asked how he feels toward Ivan (real feelings, in Arthurs | erence that reference world, even if toward a fictitious being in this | at he could : TaleSpin world), and he decides to ask Ivan for some test” (1976, hhoney. Aithur travels to where he believes Ivan can be eis decided 4 found, but when he gets there, Ta fails its precondition | - tests—he’s not “close” to Ivan, because Tvan's not there Expressive Processing Axthur infers that George has lied, and proceeds to distrust him, like him somewhat less, and believe George is trying to deceive him. However, Arthur hasn't stopped Dekoving that Ivan exists, only that he knows where Ivan cxists, As it curs out, there’s no one to ask where Ivan really is except George. So Arthur heads back to George’s tee. Given that failed goal, he tsies the next Persuade planbox: bargaining, He infers that George Would probably like 2 worm, and the initial serup determined that Arthur knew the location of a worm. So asking George where Ivan is still exists as Arthur offers George a worm if he will tll him where to find Ivan. George promises to do so (a possible world), while making the decision to trick Arthur (@ different possible world, which will only come to exist if triggered by the worm’s arrival). After Arthur succeeds in getting. the worm and bringing it to George, the bird eats it and makes fan of him. With this planbox having failed, the next isto threaten. But the audience, when asked, asserts that Arthur feels 2 litle dominated by George, so he won't ty it. Having failed to find a way to ask Ivan for honey directly, Arthur is moved by the next planbox of Tellto try to get someone else to ask Ivan to give him honey. He tries with George—there’s no one else—but this ails even more pitifully than his ast attempt. Things continue to unravel until TaleSpin decides there's nothing more that Arthur knows to do to try to address his hunger His options are particularly limited because thete’s 10 way for him to go looking for food—if he cannot convince someone else to tell him, thete's no way to find out, And as we remember from the setup for the story, 136 0 one knov Aethur and the story e¢ soon as the problem, he of them ha Tale-Sp “That was @ sore than in this boo undertaking story syste levels of ¢ Blige Dect illustrates b representa! operational But its our TabSp of fiction. behavior story. Ia a in the gen is present. the audien comput of such sho: return late say that The Tale-Spin Effect i proceeds to i ‘no one knows about any bear food in this world, Between ieve George Arthur and George they only know about one worm. So sa’t stopped 4 the story could not have turned out any other way. As where Ivan i ‘soon as the audience decided that hunger was Arthut’s where Ivan, 4 problem, he was doomed. He made maay plas, yet none of them had a chance of working: The end. Given that | led goal, he Tale-Spin’s Fiction | infers that = ‘That was a significant amount of detail about Tals Spin, | ini scrap more than T will offer about any other system described | aworm, So 3 in this book. I hope it gave some sense of the Gpe of sim where to a undertaking involved in creating even a first-generation | sible world), story system, There's much more going on—at the | (a difference levels of character and stozy—than in something like | sif triggered Eliga/ Doctor or a standard computer RPG. Further, it [sin going iustatesow-a compute ter that sc to generate eats it and teptesentations of human behavior can be built as an |g filed, the ‘operationalization of theories about human behavior, | sked, asserts But it’s also worth noting that the story produced in [porge, so he ‘our Tale-Spin example wase’t a particularly strong instance | of fiction, While TalsSpin creates character behavior, this | a for honey E behavior doesn't necessarily take the shape of a traditional | ox of Tall a story, In addition, much of the action that takes place him hones. a in the generation of such a story (as with our example) | uc this fails is present only at the process level and imperceptible to ings continue the audience. An audience member presented with the | othing more output of this TalesSpin story would have seen something | shunges ‘mach shorter and simpler. This is something to which I'l use there’s return later. For now, I want to consider what it means to | £ he cannot say that Tale Spin produces fiction at al. | way to find [oe the sons Expressive Processing 10. Rye partway | Possible Worlds we plan (9 ote aca Van, ‘A shorthand definition of atin might be a listing of hhave great’ ieee ene its most familiar forms: “novels and short stories.” or logic more DolseIolowedty | peshaps “novels, short stories, theater, television, and versions of 1 ulate movies.” Yet such definitions won't be much help to us impossible: | Thoms Pare in if we are interested in thinking about emexping forms. of a numb | te rst chapter of ‘Ac one point, the novel was an innovative new form of seturned | [atoacene | fiction and would have been left out of such a definition well after dl sie picture ‘Now there are varions innovative digital forms of fiction A simp! [Wocsommesucay) (meting In order to think about new forms, we need a to fiction 1 af scar. | more principled definition of fiction. our world, — In response to this, a numberof digital media theorists alternative have begua to work with definitions of fiction emerging there are a from possible worlds theory and modal logic. These ate this forrmal among a wider group of literary approaches desived from berween fi philosophy and linguistics, and this particular strand began, 2 in referens to establish its own identity in the 1970s. In Possible Werks complex | Artificial Inselliggns, and Narrative Theory, Marie-Laure Ryan alternative (1992) traces the lineage of this work to the late-1970s both fcto essays of 2 number of writers. 2 nonfiction In philosophy the nation of possible worlds is often the people traced back to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, whose position 4 10 these is is pethaps most widely remembered as that devoutly held the exeatic by De. Pangloss in Voltaie’s Candide. Leibniz argued that : necessary there are an infinity of possible worlds in the mind of : Ryan ¢ God—and that one of them, the best possible, is the one 2 simply the in which we live. Leibnia’s position is engaged with the but the re most elevated concerns of philosophy and theology, but 4 indexicalt that is not the only place we find possible wotlds. Closer ae to refer 10 to home, we imagine possible worlds when we speculate 3 as “newual (‘Twonderif the hunch special will be Lemongrass Tofu”), not only ¢ ‘when we wish (‘Lhope Jane gets that promotion”), when : system of 138 The Tale-Spin Effect | 4 wwe plan (“Weill get there before the doors open, so we | a listing of q hhave great seats”), and s0 on. Possible worlds, and modal | stories.” of 3 logic mote general, aze tools for thinking throagh | sision, and vvessions of such questions as: What is possible? What is | help to us S impossible? What is necessary or contingent? The work | ging forms. a ‘of a number of thinkers has, especially since the 1960s, | ew form of e returned philosophers to consideration of these topics | a definition, a ‘well after the time of Leibniz, | as of fiction. : ‘A simple attempt at applying possible worlds theory | swe need a to fiction might propose that nonfiction texts refer to | out world, the real world, while fictional texts refer to | dia theorists alteenative possible worlds. As Ryan points out, though, | 5a emerging there are a number of problems with this. For example, |e These ae this formulation does not provide a way of distinguishing | Nezived from becween fiction, errors, and lies—all are statements made [ strand began : in reference to alternative possible work’s. At a more | ossible Works, complex level, there is also the problem that farther | Laure Ryan, 5 alternative possible worlds are continually embedded into | re late-1970s both fiction snd nonfiction. For instance, both fietion and | nonfiction desesibe the untealized wishes and plans of | ands is often : the people who appear in them. Ryan’s work responds | rose position - to these issues by identifying a further element—beyond | tevoutly held e the creation of an alternative possible world—that is | 2 argued that ce necessary for fiction, the mind of 5 Ryan considers the constituent move of fiction, not sles the one simply the creation of an alternative possible world ged with the but the reeamferiag of discourse to that world—so that theology, but . indexical terms such as “here” and “now” are understood | rosids, Closer ] to refer to the alternative possible world, and terms such wwe speculate as “actual” become indexical. Further, for Ryan fiction rgrass Toh”), a not only creates an alternative possible world but also a otion”), when system of seality, a universe. This is necessary becuse 139 Expressive Processing the alternative world of a fiction may also have many alternative possible worlds emanating from it, and each of them may have further alternative possible worlds (as ‘when one character speculates as to the plans of another character). Obviously, parallels with the operations of ‘Tale Spin were already at work in the description above, Digital Fictions Beyond the field of story genetation (an interest I share ‘with Ryai), a mumber of authors have used possible worlds theory as a way of grappling with emerging forms of fiction in digital media, For example, Jill Walker Rettberg, ited catlier for her discussion of quests,.is a digital ‘media theorist interested in many forms of fiction with a strong textual component (including email narratives and weblog fictions) as well as some without text 2s a primary component. In Fiction and Interaction: How Clicking 4 Mouse Can Make You Part of a Fictional World, Reterg, (2003) examines intetactive digital fictions that somehow include the user as a character in their alternative possible ‘world, She introduces the term “ontological interaction” in the course of desctibing how users ate included in these worlds, building particularly on the notion from ‘Thomas Pavel’s book of “ontological fusion” (between ‘our actual selves and fictional selves when engaging with fictional worlds) and Kendall Walton's theory of how we use fictional representations as props in a game of make- believe. (She cites Walton's 1993 Minsis as Make-Beleve) Walker notes that this approach provides a vocabulary for discussing the common generation of fictional experience in works “as disparate as installation artworks, interactive narratives and computer games” (2003, 31). 140 Ina cel theorist Jes primary ob in fiona: that is an understand kinds of w and how th that game are incom world outs on some k ‘world part and other of the wor most litera are, in Jou the things in terms ¢ worlds in be explain as the ma ‘without a toward rei going far games cue including: box, and 1 and ramos Given and digital possible w The Tale-Spin Effect Ina related vein, HaifReal—by game developer and | have many 4 and ee | theorist Jesper Juul (2005)—takes computer games as the 2 worlds (as a ptimaty objects of study. Given this, Juul is not interested. of another 4 in fiion as a category of artworks but rather as something erations of . that is an element of many games. He is interested in an above. ‘understanding how games project fictional woslds: what Kinds of worlds, how players are cued to imagine them, and how those worlds relate to the games’ rules, Juul notes srest I share that game fictions, like those of traditional literature, sible worlds are incomplete. Just as in Hamit we know litle of the | g forms of world outside the castle and its immediate vicinity—but ‘er Rettberg, - con some level assume itis embedded in a fully detiled is 2 digital 2 ‘world partially filled in by knowledge from ont own world fiction with . and other texts —so in the game HafLfé we know litle il nartatives e of the world outside the complex where it is set. Unlike nut text as @ mostliterary fetions, however, the workds of many games How Clicking : are, in Juul’ terminology, “incoherent” (which is one of 1d, Rettherg the things that limits Juul’ interest in discussing games at somehow in terms of arrativ, 2s opposed to fiction). These are tive possible wwotkls in which significant events take place that cannot interaction” = be explained without discussing the game rules, such | included in as the many games that feature multiple and extra lives notion from. without any element of the game fiction that points 1” (between : toward reincarnation. Juul desctibes a number of ways, agaging with : going far beyond traditional novelistic techniques, that of how we : ‘games cue players to imagine possible fictional worlds, ne of make- including: graphics; sound; text; cut-scenes; game title, Make-Belewe) : bos, and mammal; haptics; ules; player actions and time; veabuilary for ‘ and rumors (133-138). alexperience Given that authors considering the concepts of fiction 3, interactive and digital media from differing directions have found the possible worlds approach to fiction fruitful, how can it 141 1. Ort putt omer vagy, ais eves and thes poraya help one understand TaleSpin, as well as story generation more generally? First, of cousse, it can clarify that Tale Spi’s operations produce Sections. The psychological action noted during George's speculations about Aethur is revealed as precisely the stuff of fiction when seen theough the lens of possible worlds theories. Second, this approsch ‘provides a way to think about fictions that is purely in terms of simcture This is important because TalsSpin, like most story-genesation projects, is concerrfed with producing the events of stoties—and very litle with how those events are presented to the audience. In literary theory this is sometimes referred to as the distinction between “story” and “discourse” (os, in some more specialized contexts, “fabula” and “sjuzhet”).!" In. fact, Mechan was so litte concerned with the presentation of Tale Spin ictions that Mumblo— + the naturallanguage generator used to turn TaleSpin's conceptual dependency expressions into English—was cobbled together in single day. (As I will discuss shortly, however, the problems with TaleSpia’s ourput cun deeper than Munblés stilted constructions) Most important, seeing fiction in this light ean help us identify the core operational logic at work in TalesSpin planbox-based planning This method of planning, as outlined by Schank and Abelson, operates by projecting potential behaviors that change the state of the world— possible worlds-—-which launch further projections, which jn turn launch farther projections, finding a “chain of lattice” of worlds that may lead from the current world to one in which a goal is satisfied. The TalesSpin system certainly contains other operational logies, such as those ‘governing movernent, character relationships, and so on. 142 But TalesSpi that charact ‘happens onl fleshed out ‘Tak Spin doe selationships feshes out required by contribute t logic of pls the profusic fictions and The Tale Ta Tealo Ca ‘0 characte garden. Pol through sym picees on a vastempite. building wit model of th constructed d of Euphem In Eesli, ¢ hhovses—m: solstice 2 and agency- se taken dc is continual of the sta precisely —i The Tale-Spin Effect generation But Tale Spin does not begin with a complete virtual world yy that Tale that characters can move across. Instead, movement | yehological happens only when required by plans, and the world is out Arthur i fleshed out only to the degece required by plans. Similarly, | when seen a TaleSpin does not generate a complete set of interpersonal J es. Second, q relationships when chazacters ate exeated but rathet only | at fictions Ee fleshes out the connections between characters that are | important required by plans. So while other operational logies may [on projects, contribute tothe Fictional works of Tali, it the tories —and logic of planbox-based planning that is central, It creates, | oted to the . the profusion of imagined worlds that define TalSpii’s | es referred fictions and drive the work of the system's other logics, “discourse” ! | Jabula” and s The Tale-Spin Effect concerned, - In Italo Calvino's Inusibe Gitts (Calvino and Weaver 1974), at Mrmble— two characters named Kublai Khan and Marco Polo sit i. | a Tale Spins ; garden, Polo tells Klan-—sometimes in words, sometimes aglish—was : through symbols, and sometimes through the relation of | cuss shortly, 5 pieces on a chessboard—of cities he has visited within the tun deeper : ‘vast empire. Here are afew In the middle of Fedora isa metal building with a crystal globe in every room, each containing a ght can help model of the city as it might have been in a possible future, in Tale Spine S constructed at a different stage of its history. At every planning, as 2 solstice and equinox, around thie fires of the marketplace iy projecting 2 of Euphemia, there is trade not in goods but in memories. the world— In Ersilia, the inhabitants stretch strings between all the ctions, which houses—marking relationships of blood, trade, authority a “chain ot : and agency—until one can no longer pass, all but the strings asrent world Z ad Exsilia is built again elsewhere. Thekla Spin systera is continually under construction, following the blueprint uch as those a of the stars, while Andria already reflects the heavens sand s0 on. precisely —in every street, building, job, and ceremons-—but Expressive Processing those who live there must carefully weigh each change to the city, given the changes it will produce in the heavens, Polo and Khan each propose a model city, from which all others can be deduced. They look through atlas pages that contain ot only all the cities of Khan's empire but also all those that will one day come to exist (Patis, Mexico City) and all imaginary lands (Utopia, New Atlantis) Tris not hard to picture Tale Spin as an addition to this list of imaginary lands. It is the place made up of nothing but plans within plans within plans-‘Phe people have no emotions, except those that help select between possible plans. They have no memories, except of plans uundecway, plans that have failed, and the locations of things they may use in plans, And these locations—the very geographies of this imaginary place—come to exist only as needed by their plans. Like one of Calvino’s cities, TaleSpin is an alien place. And yet, each is alien because some element that wwe recognize of our own lives becomes the defining clement, practically the only element, of the people and landscape. On some level we do trade in memories lke the inhabitants of Euphemia, clot free passage with networks of connection lke the inhabitants of Esilia, and, like the inhabitants of TaleSpin, make Chinese boxes of plans within plans that at times obsess us so that nothing else seems to exist, Nevertheless, to those who consider only the output of Tale-Spin fctions, al of this is truly invisible. Take, for example, George Bird wying to decide how ro answer Arthur Bear’ request to tell him where to find honey. ‘Meehan doesn’t provide us with the Mumbe output from this fiction, but a story with a similar situation in it is 144 reprinted in is the Mum speculation: such like t Tom aske there wer Wilma we ‘The em undoubted story, if on of TaleSpi ‘contain ace or elaborat all this psyc only at the made rando Rather structures, from conce fictional en Once upd was a be inthe be beeniv. rest ina Tom kre that Mag was ih a bush. Betty kn And soon, The Tale-Spin Effect | ange to the reprinted in an appendix co Mechan’s dissertation, Here | eavens, Polo is the Mumble output of a seties of considerations and | ich all others 3 speculations that, given TaleSin’s structures, is probably | shat contain 3 ‘much like those in Arthur's and George’s story: ‘so all those 4 Tom asked Wilma whether Wilma would telt Tom where | City) and all there were some berries if Tom gave Wilma a worrn, ‘iim was inctined to ie to Tom, (Meehan 1976, 232) addition to made up of : “The empty space between those two sentences is ‘The people : undoubtedly one of the most interesting parts of this lect betweeo story, if only we could see it from the “Interior” view | epr of plans of TaleSpins operations. But Murble stories never locations of E contain accounts of characters’ multilevel speculations sations—the e of claborate considerations of potential plans. Instead, | come to exist = all this psychological action is, as above, elided. Looking | only at the surface, the decision might as well have been j- is an alien : made sindomly. | clement that 4 Rather than TaleSpin’s most interesting story the defining a structures, Mumbleoutputs plodding, detailed information | e people and : from conceptual dependency expressions that have litle rories like the : fictional energy, as with the beginning of this same story: . with necworks (Once upon a time Betty Bear lived in a cave. There » and, like the ; was @ beehive in an apple tree, Maggie Bee lived ves of plans in the beehive, There was some Honey in Maggie's nothing else - beehive. Tom Smith was ina chair. Thera was 2 ie rest in a redwood tree. Wilma Bird lived in the nest ‘Tom knew that Wilma was in her nest, Tom knew ay the output ena 7 that Maggie was in her beehive. Tom knew that Betty eases was in her cave, There were some cranbertes near a bush, There was a worm near 3 patch of ground, 0 find honey ne Betty knew thatthe cranberries were nea the bush. ‘output from uation in it is And 30 on, including painstaking reports of travel such as Expressive Processing | | | | 146 “Tom walked from the chair actoss a living zoom down in general a hall via some stats down a hall down a hall through a in creating valley across a meadow to the ground by the redwood es by comput trce.” 1¢3 no wonder that most humanists have seen Tale 4 interesting Spin as only worthy of ridicule. q andience ex Further, unlike the open-ended textual interaction of a later chapte | Elia/ Doctor, the interaction allowed by Tale-Spin takes 4 and what I ¢ | the form of highly restricted menu selection. No amount | of play with che system will have the result of play with Tale-Sp. Elza) Décor, insight into the processes at work. Instead, 4 ‘The Tab-Sp | it would be impossible, through play, to pierce the boxing. Tate Spin as surface of a TalsSpin story to see the more interesting 4 ‘was positios fiction taking place through its processes, . 4 ‘As Meehan | ‘One can look at it this way: The Blize effect creates 7 structures 0 | a surface illusion of system complexity—which play (if ae the most eff allowed) dispels. The Tale Spin effect, om the other hand, If this were

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