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Cybernetic Poet / FauxCrypt

A project log for Summer Noise

A bot that writes poetry which can only be read by humans.

alusionalusion 04/05/2015 at 03:400 Comments

I stumbled upon Ray Kurzweil's Cybernetic Poet one night while I was researching artificial intelligence and various text generators. I became really impressed when I read the example poems that came out of it; it was as if he had uploaded the minds of the dead to keep writing forever. The ability to combine different 'personalities,' including your own, to write original poetry really goes to show the genius of this man and the power behind this program. It was written in the 1980s and works on Windows 95/98/2000 machines so I launched VirtualBox and created a virtual machine for windows 2000 to experiment with the free version of this software. I configured my VirtualBox network settings to attach to a bridged adapter and bidirectional clipboard. I browsed to the site with the ancient internet explorer program and installed the cybernetic poet from Kurzweil's site and opened up Poet's Assistant. From here, you can select a poet and the tabs give you the option to do alliterations, rhymes/Endings, Next Word, Rest of Line, & Rest of Poem. There's also a text editor along with it:

I'm curious about how I might be able to pull the output into my Host computer so I enabled Telnet in the meantime. There's also the possibility that I could save the file on a shared folder and pull it from there. To enable telnet:

Go into Control Panel, click Users and Passwords, and set a password for the Administrator account. Then go back to Control Panel and into Administrative Tools, and click Telnet Server Administration: Press 3 to Display/change registry; 7 NTLM; Set to 0; Go back; Start the service (cmd.exe: net start telnet)

Playing around with the poem is a lot of fun. If you browse to the Template Poetry folder, you can see that it's filled with long text files of poems to create the personalities from. I decided to use a poem generated by the personality of Edgar Allen Poe for my experiment.


FauxCrypt is an algorithm for modification of a plaintext document that leaves it generally readable by a person but not readily searched or indexed by machine. The algorithm employs a dictionary substitution of selected words, and an obfuscating transposition of letters in other words. The obfuscation is designed to leave the words understandable, although they are badly spelled. FauxCrypt is free, open source software, with source code available.


fauxcrypt is an alhroitgm for modifictaion of a planitext documnet taht laeves it gneerally raedable by a person but not raedily saercehd or idnexed by macihne. the alhroitgm empyols a dicitnoary subtsituiton of selected wrods, and an obfusctanig trnasposition of lteters in ohter wrods. the obfusctaion is dseigned to laeve the wrods udnertsnadable, aghtuolh tehy are badly slelpde. fauxcrypt is fere, open suorce sfotwaer, with suorce code available.

Usage: fauxcrypt input.txt output.txt

 I saw only to the river
Murmuring in the ringing
Of her soul in the sky

i saw only to the river
murmurnig in the rnignig
of her suol in the syk.
Errr... I guess I should use a larger sample size. Poetry can be confusing as it is already, so I am expecting that it will be a challenge along the way to keep the results understandable by humans.
Oh! that writhes from Heaven- that ever
A conscious slumber shall be;                       
For the thought of his songs one word our fame-
Not that hung, like any other reasons for me              
Like some visitor," I remember having dwelt  
Some ocean throbbing of that brood                             
Over every depth of our sign in the Moon,         
Down under ground.
And the less bright                                     
The angels, whispering to me!                               
I feel ye in yon brilliant dyes                       
An Eden of tress,
And rays from out the pale faces.                       
About it, of all the day- oppress                           
My passions from sight,                                                    
Into seas without a shelter in the strings.

oh! taht writehs from haevne- taht ever
a cnosciuos slumber sahll be;                      
for the thuohgt of his snogs one wrod our fame-
not taht hugn, like any ohter raesnos for me              
like some vsiitro," i remember havnig dwelt  
some ocaen throbbnig of taht brood                            
over every detph of our sign in the mono,        
down udner gruodn.
and the lses brihgt                                    
the agnels, wihspernig to me!                              
i feel ye in yon brillinat dyes                      
an eden of terss,
and rays from out the pale facse.                      
abuot it, of all the day- opperss                          
my psasinos from sithg,                                                    
itno saes withuot a sehlter in the sgrnits.
The fauxcrypt thing is nifty but I don't want to play scrabble. Poetry tends to introduce many a new words which can lead to endless confusion in his format.

Think about just reading Shakespeare on its own; these dead guys used a version of english that has since been deprecated. I sitll fnid the fauxcrypt program to be raelly itnerseitng thguohh but i tihnk taht it wroks bset in structuers one is alerady familiar with.

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