Michael Witmore's blog post, "Now Read This: A Thought Experiment" (http://winedarksea.org/?p=2180) proposed a 'winner take all' challenge. Select the best (at least the one you are most comfortable with) one of three methods to determine that a previously unknown manuscript found at the Folger Shakespeare Library is a comedy or a tragedy.Your choices are: 1) ask an early modernist to read it and make his or her declaration 2) run a computer program over it and rate it on our comedy/tragedy classifiers 3) have an early modernist read it in an MRI machine and characterizing the play on the basis of brain activity In this 8-slide read. The first 3 slides lay out the #NRTchallenge. Slides 4-8, I make my choice and give a quick justification. I also include easy instructions and relevant hashtags so you can 'cast your vote' to the Twitterverse. :-) Enjoy, -: Jim :- P.S. I am digging into computation linguistics, museum informatics, etc. as part of my post-cancer Bonus Rounds. My soulmate wife, Timlynn Babitsky, and I have launched two inter-related Citizen Science and Citizen History projects. Please feel free to visit us at www.FactMiners.org and www.SoftalkApple.com.

1. Witmore’s “Now Read This”
Thought Experiment
(#NRTchallenge – My ans. slides 4-8)
Given an unknown manuscript
from the Folger Shakespeare
Library, and assuming
functional equivalence of the
methods, which of these three
approaches would you use to
determine if it’s a comedy or
tragedy?...
1 of 8Re: http://winedarksea.org/?p=2180 By @Jim_Salmons obo @FactMiners

2. #NRTchallenge: Choices*
* w/ assumed equivalence
1. ask an early modernist to read it
and make his or her declaration
2. run a computer program over it
and rate it on our comedy/tragedy
classifiers
3. have an early modernist read it in
an MRI machine and characterizing
the play on the basis of brain
activity
2 of 8Re: http://winedarksea.org/?p=2180 By @Jim_Salmons obo @FactMiners

3. Take the #NRTchallenge
• Read Michael Witmore’s blog post at
http://winedarksea.org/?p=2180
• Tweet to @MichaelWitmore w/
#NRTchallenge & choice #1, #2, or
#3… (why, optional but desirable )
• Next 4 slides are my reply… yours?
3 of 8Re: http://winedarksea.org/?p=2180 By @Jim_Salmons obo @FactMiners

4. #NRTchallenge Choice 1: Ask an early
modernist & declare result
+ We’re told it works. (Thought experiment)
+ Fellow scholars will like it.
- One’s expert is another’s hack
- No transparency (Expert’s head “black box.”)
- Not repeatable (Same expert or other?)
- Expensive in time & money
- No path to explanatory theory
4 of 8Re: http://winedarksea.org/?p=2180 By @Jim_Salmons obo @FactMiners

5. #NRTchallenge Choice 3: Early modernist
reads in MRI machine
+ We’re told it works. (Thought experiment)
+ Fellow scholars will like it.
- Still, one’s expert is another’s hack.
- As w/ #1. No transparency - Not
repeatable - Expensive in time &
money - No path to explanatory
theory… PLUS
- Hiring Universities now require MRIs
w/ transcripts, vita, etc.
5 of 8Re: http://winedarksea.org/?p=2180 By @Jim_Salmons obo @FactMiners

6. #NRTchallenge Choice 2: Run computer
program that rates it
+ We’re told it works. (Thought experiment)
+ Transparent – read the code!
+ Repeatable – share the code!
+ Path to Explanatory power
– improve the code!
+ Cheap & Fast – done before #1 & #2
have even called expert for appointment!
- (Many) scholars won’t like it.
6 of 8Re: http://winedarksea.org/?p=2180 By @Jim_Salmons obo @FactMiners

7. #NRTChallenge: Choices
My Winner is…#2. Yours?
1. ask an early modernist to read it
and make his or her declaration
2. run a computer program over it
and rate it on our comedy/tragedy
classifiers
3. have an early modernist read it in
an MRI machine and characterizing
the play on the basis of brain
activity.
7 of 8Re: http://winedarksea.org/?p=2180 By @Jim_Salmons obo @FactMiners

8. Witmore’s ‘Now Read This’ Challenge
Brought to you by
FactMiners.org & The Softalk Apple Project…
• BTW, I have a related Medium.com
article, “FactMiners’ Fact Cloud &
Witmore’s Text as Massively
Addressable Object.”
• I invite you to read it here:
https://goo.gl/3Vb0lO.
• Also visit: www.FactMiners.org &
www.SoftalkApple.com
8 of 8Re: http://winedarksea.org/?p=2180 By @Jim_Salmons obo @FactMiners