Dr. Dobb's | Earth Falls Toward The Sun And Everybody Dies - A science-fiction plot-generator in Excel

Earth Falls Toward The Sun And Everybody Dies - A science-fiction plot-generator in Excel

Here's a little bit of fun from that never-never land between AI and spreadsheets. It's an Excel spreadsheet I constructed that produces science-fiction story plots. To run it, click this link — www.j-paine.org/excelsior/repository/spin/spin.xls — and read the plot from cells A4 downwards. To generate a new plot, select "Recalculate" in cell B4.

The spreadsheet was generated using a program I call Excelsior, and you can see the code, with commentary, at www.j-paine.org/excelsior/repository/spin/spin.html. It works by finding a random path through a transition graph of plot events.

April 28, 2008
URL:http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/earth-falls-toward-the-sun-and-everybody/228701453