Strachey love letter algorithm

Christopher Strachey wrote a combinatory love letter algorithm for the Manchester Mark 1 computer in 1952. The poems it generated have been seen as the first work of electronic literature and a queer critique of heteronormative expressions of love.

The algorithm

Rather than modeling writing as a creative process, the love letter algorithm represents the writing of love letters as formulaic and without creativity. The algorithm has the following structure:

1. Print two words taken from a list of salutations
2. Do the following 5 times:
   1. Choose one of two sentence structures depending on a random value Rand
   2. Fill the sentence structure from lists of adjectives, adverbs, substantives, and verbs.
3. Print the letter's closing

The lists of words were compiled by Strachey from a Roget's Thesaurus. Although the list of words included several variations on the word love, none of these variations made it into any of the widely circulated letters generated by Strachey's procedure.

Reception

Strachey wrote about his interest in how “a rather simple trick” can produce an illusion that the computer is thinking, and that “these tricks can lead to quite unexpected and interesting results”.

External links

• Re-implementation in PHP
• 2014 re-implementation by Nick Montfort