The Divinator can be thought of as:
DISCLAIMER
The Divinator
is not to be construed as a substitute for professional advice on any matter. By
use of this website, you assume responsibility for your interpretation of your
conversation with The Divinator and any consequences thereof, and relieve the
website creators and the webmasters of any responsibility or
liability.
HISTORY ("The Tin")
The
Divinator evolved out of lighthearted experiments with a Dadaist method of
writing poetry by randomly pulling words from a bag. While sharing a house near
the University of Delaware, David L. Levitt and Ren Belieu ripped up sheets of
paper and wrote words and phrases on the pieces. Every night for months these
slips were randomly pulled out of a shopping bag to create poems. All of the
slips were then saved in a gaudy Christmas cookie tin, which, with the help of
friends, soon became stuffed. One day Dave decided to ask the tin to describe
his date for the evening. Not happy with the drawn response, he then asked it
for advice.
After repeated inquiries by Dave, Ren, and a number of friends and neighbors, the mysterious object known as The Tin was born. Its uncanny insight sparked long discussions about Jung’s Collective Unconscious, Synchronicity, and the possibility of psychic phenomena. More simply put, everyone who used it became fascinated and spooked by the personality projecting out of this mere tin of words.
THE DIVINATOR (aka "The
Silence")
The Divinator is a descendant of The Tin. But, unlike The Tin, it
has a knowledge engine with extensive analytical linguistic intelligence that it
uses to focus its responses. On the most basic level this means it scans for
who, what, where, when, why, etc., but it also "understands" many word and
punctuation cues. It uses this parsing to activate intelligently determined
sub-files from which a reply is randomly selected. Mind you, its intelligence
aims for inspiration over information.
The Divinator itself is the Silence which speaks through a duo of Sages (Fleance and Harmonanx). The response lines of Fleance and Harmonanx were written by project founder David L. Levitt to "provide intruiging content for a new dialogue-creating genre that pays homage to the user's projection of meaning and to the muted voice of chance."
The two characters, one rather noble and the other provocatively trickster-like, represent a yin/yang whole, and Levitt enjoys creating lines for them just as playwrights enjoy their work. He has even been known to alter lines after asking his Sages to comment on what he's writing for them. This allows The Divinator to help create itself. There are currently many thousands of responses in The Divinator, even a few from the original Tin. For over a decade, responses have been added monthly to keep the ideas fresh, and to virtually eliminate repetition.
The Divinator is unique in overall concept, in its thousands of original response lines, and in its one-of-a-kind language parser that makes it work. Shakespeare has been included as an optional add-on to demonstrate that any author's works can be put into The Divinator framework to create a conversationally interactive experience for the user. As a master of human foibles and the human condition in general, Shakespeare makes a most interesting dialogue partner, but imagine posing questions to the works of ANY author you admire. The Divinator's parser and framework can make that happen.
Some have asked whether The Divinator's use of random selection meant that the conversations would be "just chance". Levitt explained: "partially chance, yes, but I wouldn't use the demeaning phrase Just Chance. Random forces should be recognized as a partner in creation, whether one speaks of The Divinator's responses or the universe's will." He then added, "first it extensively scans the user's entry for keywords and other cues, and only then the random element kicks in to assure that each response maintains an element of surprise". When recently asked whether he wished to share any additional comments on the nature of The Divinator, Levitt simply said "It speaks for itself."
The rather private artist behind The Divinator is known to have amassed impressive credentials as a seer/commentator on the human journey. David L. Levitt holds a BA in Sociology and Political Science, and wrote his Masters thesis on persuasive religious communication. He has read the classics extensively and has explored the grand wonders and back streets of no less than a dozen countries both east and west. Over time, his broad studies and travels have enabled him to deliver the lessons of world literature and the mythic spiritual quest with uncommon humor.
For his Masters thesis, he "joined" an evangelical Christian campus group, in anthropological fashion, to study firsthand the persuasive features of language used in religious recruitment. Members provided him with tape recorded conversations in which they believed the were evangelizing to a nonmember. He used debate theory to analyze the tapes, quantifying the frequency of various types of Data, Claims, and Rebuttals, and examined the impact they had on the searching human psyche.Technical findings aside, he soon understood the experience as follows: "I came to see the tapes as a sad chronicle of excess longing for certain answers that might instantly banish confusion in the present, and offer guarantees about a hereafter. Yet, the experience energized my belief that the arts could encourage people to affirm ungraspable infinity as a backdrop that provides us our freedom to create ourselves. I aim to uplift the spirit of open exploration."
This experience would later inform the creation of The Divinator and the essence of its message.
He has also credited the following as influences: "I appreciate the works of Emerson, Stephen Crane, Thornton
Wilder, Nietzsche, Ayn Rand, Hesse, Jung, Joseph Campbell, Chuang Tzu, Lao
Tzu, Alan Watts, and Eckhart Tolle. The humor of George Carlin and provacateur
Andy Kaufman have been an inspiration, as were poetry writing classes with
Pulitzer prize-winning poet W. D. Snodgrass."
For full functionality, Click on "Enter Free VIP" on the
opening page. If you're a returning visitor that's already registered, just
fill in "Email address" and "Password." If it's your first visit, then click on
"Click here to register". Next you'll fill in four fields, "Email address,
Screen Name, Password, and Verify Password." You will then be led to the
conversation page where you'll speak with The Divinator.
The Divinator conversation
page provides a box for entering any question or statement, and four green
buttons near the top of the page representing Save, Print, E-mail, and Clear the
conversation. After typing an entry, the user simply presses Enter to activate
the knowledge engine, which in turn causes a response to appear in the chat-view
box. A VIP can also enter multiple user names for times when friends are
gathered around The Divinator. Just Click on the arrow next to the primary
user's name and then click "New." Both Sages will be active upon entering,
but they can be made inactive by clicking on the check mark. Shakespeare can be
added by checking the box by his name.
The programming for the
initial PC prototype was done by Ren Belieu, and Matt Urban and Mobius New Media
(http://www.mobiusnm.com) handled the transformation into an online application.
Ken Adams served as Artist/Graphic Designer (http://www.k3n.com).
COPYRIGHT /
TRADEMARK
Full Copyright registration has been completed for text, language
parser, and art/graphics. Copyright (1999-2008) D.L. Levitt. All rights
reserved. "The Divinator", "Harmonanx", and "Fleance" are Trademarks of D. L.
Levitt and may not be used without express license from D. L. Levitt.
COMMENTS?
We value your
opinion, so feel free to send us your comments via the Contact section.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many
people were helpful in so many ways. They are: Irv, Phyllis, and Laura
Levitt, David Watt, Ren Belieu, Jeanne Solomon, Eunice Huang, Steve Chiang,
Daphne Tchao, The Bard, Matt Urban, Chris Giaccone, Mobius New Media, Harvey
Fenimore, Bob Strauss, Stephen Greenhouse, Ben Oakes, Noel Olson, Eric Wilson,
Ken Adams, the anonymous co-authors of The Tin, Mike Rewa, Randy Westbrook,
Randy Draper, Tim Sedmak, Zachary Hansen, Jane Peeples, Patrick McManus, Joepie
Van Arendonk, Chris Luckey, Mike Sipple, Kevin Bolen, Matt Bukowski, Mike
Podolak, Brandon Schakola, the supple-minded test subjects, and the employers of
Levitt and Belieu (for happily accepting their divided attention). And of
course, the Masters.