A Reward-Driven Process for Local, Noospheric, and Computational Detection of Stochastic Deviation Fields

Cheth Rowe, (left) 3 Letter Dictionary, 2008, cover photograph of the physical book; (right) A Reward-Driven Process for Local, Noospheric, and Computational Detection of Stochastic Deviation Fields, 2008. (© Cheth Rowe)

This interactive computer interface provides an experimental process for detecting stochastic deviations. The process harnesses a noise with known overlaps onto common experience. I anticipate that humans will seek these overlaps and also that their search will measurably prejudice the noise. A random selection of three alphabetic characters makes up the noise. In most cases the presentation is meaningless; but in a small percentage, a word or a pattern emerges. Organized in the guise of a game---the search for recognizable words---the process entices repeated interactions. To assist participants in loading the experimental field with probabilistic thoughts, visual aids, including a list of recent deviation candidates found and a physical dictionary of three-letter words, are part of the installation. At the conclusion of the installation a poem of the computationally detected stochastic deviations is read.

Noise is data composed of absolute randomness. Recognized words may seem like "brilliant" noise as they rise above their surrounding muck, triggering human and machine interest, but they are not. Recognized words are an expected part of the noise stream; they do not, by themselves, indicate a stochastic field distortion. To indicate such distortion requires a more subtle and perhaps poetic repetition of recognitions.

Cheth Rowe
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
Web: www.3LetterDictionary.com.

Updated 27 January 2010