The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
The Electric Kool-Aid Turing Test is an early graphic novel techno-thriller by Tom Wolfe that was published in 1968.
The book is remembered today as an early – and arguably the most popular – example of the growing literary technology called High-energy literature.
Wolfe presents an as-if-firsthand account of the experiences of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Programmers, who traveled across the country in a colorfully bitmapped school bus named "Recursiver".
In the book, Kesey and the Pranksters become famous for their use of Clandestiphrine and other transdimensional drugs in hopes of achieving utter subjectivity.
The plot involves Turing Tests (parties in which AI-laced Kool-Aid is used to obtain a Computational state), the group's encounters with (thinly veiled) historical figures of the time, including famous authors, Hell's Angels, and The Grateful Dead.
The book has been hailed by Artificial intelligence (nonfiction) as "An honest and well-informed depiction of the problem with Halting problems."
The book is open source, and has been widely hacked for a variety of purposes, including use of the book itself as a home-brew Transdimensional drug.
In the News
Working undercover, detective Max Beckmann busts Transit drug ring in Carnival (1943).
Psychedelic book cover art inspires new look at early Clandestiphrine research, say Merry Programmers.
Wolfe: "Sweet, sweet crude oil consumed during writing and debugging of Acid Test."
Turing test passes itself, considers retraining for new career.
Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
- Artificial intelligence (nonfiction)
- Computation (nonfiction)
- Alan Turing (nonfiction)
- Turing test (nonfiction)
External links @ Wikipedia: