Handkerchief flirting codes of the far future

November 23, 2020 2:05 PM

Behold! There is no one: How might one update Victorian flirting codes? Janelle Shane (previously) to the rescue, teaching a neural network how to send and decode naughty signals "with fans, parasols, gloves, and handkerchiefs."

Shane also recommends her story "68:HAZARD:COLD" if you're smitten by "the idea of AIs co-opting a limited set of tools into a rich and expressive language."

posted by doctornemo (8 comments total)

“I will not always be so” is kind of amazing.
posted by curious nu at 4:06 PM on November 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Okay, that short story was really good. Thank you for sharing it.
posted by Alterscape at 5:01 PM on November 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

Drawing slowly across galactic microwave background radiation
posted by Tsuga at 5:13 PM on November 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

“Good day, yes, there is a small matter” he said, gesticulating suggestively with a calling card and an octopus.
posted by mhoye at 6:58 PM on November 23, 2020

(These are actually great, not least of which is the faint suggestion that there is a layer of playful metacognition involved here deliberately tuning for coyly but plausibly deniable.)
posted by mhoye at 7:04 PM on November 23, 2020

The Wehman Bros of NYC were apparently quite popular publishers in that era. They put out books on 'Fortune-Telling with Cards', 'Practical Poultry', 'Barbershop Jokes', 'Hebrew Jokes', 'Irish Jokes' and -much more-. Sort of a fount of some kind of wisdom, really.
Bing search
Jypsy Fortune-Telling video (from Painted Lady Tarot) - advice from Madame Le Normand.
posted by Twang at 7:10 PM on November 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

Ahh, these are wonderful. I'm going to actually sign up for the newsletter just for the rest of them.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:36 PM on November 23, 2020

I am now very curious what GPT-3 would do with more contemporary handkerchief codes.
posted by eotvos at 10:25 PM on November 23, 2020 [2 favorites]