Thought Poppers: A Scavenger Hunt For Meaning

Thought Poppers presents the results of an experiment with adjectival phrases that began in the early 1990s. The experiment relies on a system of computer programs that the author created first in C language, then in Visual Basic, and now in Python 3.2. The author has also assembled a database of over 9000 adjectives or adjectival phrases and over 30,000 nouns or noun phrases. Two strictures have been employed on every word admitted to the database: 1) Is the word less than 25 characters in length 2) Can the word replace a word in the template phrase: rational Western intellectual tradition. The system produces 10,000 phrases per second on an old-fashioned 2015 PC. Many of the phrases are pure poppycock and babble. The scene has been set. This book presents a scavenger hunt. The prizes are thought poppers.