I have played with the idea of writing a “wisdom generator” program for a long time. A lot of “wise” statements seem to follow a small set of formulaic rules, and it would not be too hard to make a program that randomly generated wise sayings. A typical rule is to create a paradox (“Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty”) or just use a nice chiasm or reversal (“The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of the wise man is in his heart”). This seems to fit in with your theory: the structure given by the form is enough to trigger recognition that a wise saying will now arrive. If the conclusion is weird or unfamiliar, so much the better.
Currently reading Raymond Smullyan’s The Tao is Silent, and I’m struck by how much less wise taoism seems when it is clearly explained.
I suspect that this sort of algorithm was unconsciously internalized by many scriptwriters of Kung Fu films. I did the same thing, unconsciously, during the period I was reading Smullyan’s books. That’s what I did to come up with, “There’s neither heaven nor hell save what we grant ourselves, neither fairness nor justice save what we grant each other.”
I suspect that this sort of algorithm was used as a sort of filter by the more savvy Taoist masters—just sit back and see who gets trapped in this particular local maxima.
I have played with the idea of writing a “wisdom generator” program for a long time. A lot of “wise” statements seem to follow a small set of formulaic rules, and it would not be too hard to make a program that randomly generated wise sayings. A typical rule is to create a paradox (“Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty”) or just use a nice chiasm or reversal (“The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of the wise man is in his heart”). This seems to fit in with your theory: the structure given by the form is enough to trigger recognition that a wise saying will now arrive. If the conclusion is weird or unfamiliar, so much the better.
Currently reading Raymond Smullyan’s The Tao is Silent, and I’m struck by how much less wise taoism seems when it is clearly explained.
I suspect that this sort of algorithm was unconsciously internalized by many scriptwriters of Kung Fu films. I did the same thing, unconsciously, during the period I was reading Smullyan’s books. That’s what I did to come up with, “There’s neither heaven nor hell save what we grant ourselves, neither fairness nor justice save what we grant each other.”
I suspect that this sort of algorithm was used as a sort of filter by the more savvy Taoist masters—just sit back and see who gets trapped in this particular local maxima.
You should work at a fortune cookie company, I’m sure you’d learn some tricks of the trade.
You may wish to study the “terribly mysterious” sayings of The Sphinx (from the movie “Mystery Men”) for inspiration :)
“When you can balance a tack hammer on your head, you will head off your foes with a balanced attack.”
This probably didn’t exist when you wrote this comment, but it does now: https://sebpearce.com/bullshit/