FUN WITH RECURRENT NEURAL NETWORKS:

(If you aren't already familiar with recurrent neural networks, why not see Andrej Karpathy's excellent blog?)

These days, thanks to The Wonders of Science[TM], we can train neural networks to imitate different styles of text by showing them some examples. Often the results are gibberish, but occasionally in this gibberish there is a nugget of... less gibberish. There are many fine Python libraries out there to let one run RNN experiments: I am using textgenrnn, and fine-tuning its stock model on data of my own whimsical fancy. Here is a selection of the most interesting, perplexing, or otherwise notable outputs.

I fine-tuned the network on the titles of the Sherlock Holmes canon. This was the smallest training set I'd tried so far, and they are almost all of the form "The Adventure of..." As you can see, the network picked up on the pattern. Interestingly, I seemed to get less nonsense than usual to filter out: the regularity of the training corpus seems to have given it some pretty firm ideas about what words usually are. ...Mostly. It really digs blanched cardboard.

Some results are plausible...

• A Scandal in Scarlet
• The Adventure of Charles Frieve
• The Adventure of the Abbey Carfax
• The Adventure of the Aharo Puzzle
• The Adventure of the Blanched Mane
• The Adventure of the Boscombe Valley Mystery
• The Adventure of the Cardboard Coronet
• The Adventure of the Devil's Man
• The Adventure of the Devil's Mane
• The Adventure of the Die Box
• The Adventure of the Disappearance
• The Adventure of the Empire-Circle
• The Adventure of the Hound of Charles
• The Adventure of the Lion's Band
• The Adventure of the Lion's Foot
• The Adventure of the Norwood Box
• The Adventure of the Priory Builder
• The Adventure of the Solitary Client
• The Problem of Identity

Others aren't quite taking this seriously:

• A Golden Stant Livel
• Bulfien Germancer
• The Adventure of Headed Lazarine
• The Adventure of the Adventure of the Blue
• The Adventure of the Alazis Lip
• The Adventure of the Aran of Speckled Puzzle
• The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Stain
• The Adventure of the Cardboard Carbuncle
• The Adventure of the Cardboard For Real League
• The Adventure of the Cardboard Lip
• The Adventure of the Dying Pips
• The Adventure of the Engineer Vampire
• The Adventure of the Man with the Blanched Carbuncle
• The Adventure of the Naval Prober
• The Adventure of the Problem of Ilbert
• The Adventure of the Retired Carfarte
• The Adventure of the Retired Stocting Colourman
• The Adventure of the Speckled Vappee-Britcler
• The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Blanched Box
• The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger of Priory Ferringrop
• The Adventure of the Wisteria Lion's Noble League
• The Boscombe Orben Circle
• The Five Borges
• The Ree-Mise-Greewarer Three-Scott
• The Sea Pick Puzzle
• The See Auguedy Prevative

The network is really into blue:

• The Adventure of the Blue Beryled
• The Adventure of the Blue Cardboard
• The Adventure of the Blue Carfax
• The Adventure of the Blue Creepingley
• The Adventure of the Blue Crooked Box
• The Adventure of the Blue Greek
• The Adventure of the Blue League
• The Adventure of the Blue Lodger
• The Adventure of the Blue Problem
• The Adventure of the Blue School

Many things creep...

• The Adventure of the Creeping Ballent
• The Adventure of the Creeping Band
• The Adventure of the Creeping Box
• The Adventure of the Creeping Partington
• The Adventure of the Creeping Peter
• The Adventure of the Creeping Pips
• The Adventure of the Creeping Stain
• The Adventure of the Creeping Stock
• The Adventure of the Creeping Three-Quarter

...while others are crooked:

• The Adventure of the Crooked Augustus
• The Adventure of the Crooked Band
• The Adventure of the Crooked Force
• The Adventure of the Crooked Frances Carfax
• The Adventure of the Crooked Nez
• The Adventure of the Crooked Partington
• The Adventure of the Crooked Peter
• The Adventure of the Crooked Stain
• The Adventure of the Crooked Stocker
• The Adventure of the Crooked Stone
• The Adventure of the Crooked of Bloar

The Mediterranean is a recurring concern:

• The Adventure of the Greek Box
• The Adventure of the Greek Carbuncle
• The Adventure of the Greek Cardboard
• The Adventure of the Greek Carfax
• The Adventure of the Greek Here
• The Adventure of the Greek Houscome
• The Adventure of the Greek Lady Box
• The Adventure of the Greek League
• The Adventure of the Greek Live
• The Adventure of the Greek Parting
• The Adventure of the Greek Pince-Nez

As are the wacky Musgraves:

• The Adventure of the Musgrave Box
• The Adventure of the Musgrave Carbuncle
• The Adventure of the Musgrave Carfax
• The Adventure of the Musgrave Old Place
• The Adventure of the Musgrave Peter
• The Adventure of the Musgrave School

Six of everything:

• The Adventure of the Six Bachelor
• The Adventure of the Six Baskerville
• The Adventure of the Six Blacker
• The Adventure of the Six Blanched
• The Adventure of the Six Blanched Box
• The Adventure of the Six Blanched Carbuncle
• The Adventure of the Six Blanched Colourman
• The Adventure of the Six Blanched Mane
• The Adventure of the Six Blanched Stocked
• The Adventure of the Six Blanched Stone
• The Adventure of the Six Blaze
• The Adventure of the Six Bohemia
• The Adventure of the Six Bohler
• The Adventure of the Six Breeches
• The Adventure of the Six Bridge
• The Adventure of the Six Britage
• The Adventure of the Six Brobles
• The Adventure of the Six Brold
• The Adventure of the Six Brold Carbunched
• The Adventure of the Six Brood
• The Adventure of the Six Bruating
• The Adventure of the Six Bruce-Partington
• The Adventure of the Six Carbuncle
• The Adventure of the Six Cardboard
• The Adventure of the Six Cardboard Bow
• The Adventure of the Six Cardboard Box
• The Adventure of the Six Carrier
• The Adventure of the Six Carritute
• The Adventure of the Six Carrituted Bow
• The Adventure of the Six Circle
• The Adventure of the Six Colourman
• The Adventure of the Six Creeping
• The Adventure of the Six Creeping Box
• The Adventure of the Six Creeping Man
• The Adventure of the Six Creeping Peter
• The Adventure of the Six Crooked Band
• The Adventure of the Six Golden
• The Adventure of the Six Lady Frances Carfax
• The Adventure of the Six League
• The Adventure of the Six Man
• The Adventure of the Six Manger
• The Adventure of the Six Prettington
• The Adventure of the Six Scandal
• The Adventure of the Six Scarlet
• The Adventure of the Six School
• The Adventure of the Six Scott