Around Valentine’s Day in the US and UK, these things called candy hearts (or conversation hearts or sweethearts) appear: small and sugary, bearing a simple, short Valentine’s message. There are only room for a few characters, so they read something like “LOVE YOU” or “CALL ME” or “BE MINE”.
I collected all the genuine heart messages I could find, and then gave them to a learning algorithm called a neural network. Given a set of data, a neural network will learn the patterns that let it imitate the original data – although its imitation is sometimes imperfect. The candy heart messages it produced… well, you be the judge.
The neural net did produce some that would pass for – and arguably improve upon – the standard messages.
DEAR ME MY MY LOVE BOT CUTE KISS MY BEAR LOVE BUN
Others were in the same spirit, but perhaps not quite as effective.
YOU A LOVE AM GOOD YOU ARE BABE ME MY ❤ YOU ARE IT HEART ME SWEET PEAR COOL CUD FANCY MY HERO
Others were, um, strange. I don’t know what they mean, but some of them might work on me.
ALL HOVER OOG LOVE TEAM BEAR TIME HUG PIN A FACE YOU’RE ME SWOOL MAT BOG LOVE I HONKER HOW COT BEAR WIG FANG BE A GOOL TWEET UP BAT WIRLY OOT I WANDER TIME STAR
These will probably not be one of the standard messages anytime soon.
STANK LOVE SWEAT POO LOVE 2000 HOGSYEA HOLE HOW U HOT YOU ARE BOA CHERT FACE LICK SWEAT PEAR LOO GIN YOU A GOO LOOK BIG YOU ARE BAG U HACK
There was yet another category of message, a category you might be able to predict given the prevalence of four-letter words in the original dataset. The neural network thought of some nice new four-letter words to use. Unfortunately, some of those words already had other meanings. Let’s just say that the overall effect was surprisingly suggestive. Fill out the form here and I’ll send them to you.
Also, if you need more love help from the neural network, check out the pick up lines it wrote.
“Carlos says ‘Its only a short life’ – is he trying to persuade her something? old Hollywood lover man. Torments in the night. Sex pest. I wish someone would ruffle my hair or something give us a kiss an that.”
“There’s no one else on the planet that could ever be what Peter is to me, and me to him – it’s just impossible”
Carl talks about going to Thailand to write what became Anthems For Doomed Youth with Peter. (Sorry about having to film off the TV, but i hope it’s comprehensible!)
Is there a man on planet Earth besides Carl Barât who could, or even would, deliver the line “Is there a new sonic pathway, as yet undiscovered?” and cause me to fall even more in love with him
I can’t wait to get home tonight and watch this (as long as my Sky box hasn’t fucked up), I’ve currently no means to get it off the box but expect quote posts aplenty I’m sure
Oh man so many. I could go on for days but these stand out to me off the top of my head:
1. The tea story – Carl having a jealous fit and interrupting Peter’s make out session with his girlfriend by angrily making tea and cursing.
2. The door slam – When Carl turned up to see Peter after ages apart and drunkenly brought Anthony with him so Peter slammed the door in their faces in a jealous rage.
3. The turban tale – Carl split his chin open jumping on a street sign the night of the freedom gig, Peter wanted to go in the ambulance with him but was being too rowdy and then Carl refused to be stitched unless the nurses brought him a turban.
4. The busking story – When they were busking for beer money on Waterloo bridge and Steve’s false teeth fell out and sent some Japanese girls running down the street screaming.
5. The top to tail – When they shared a single mattress and one morning Peter claims Carl woke with Peter’s “massive boner in his face” and “couldn’t stop talking about it”.
6. The Jaffa cakes – Carl went to see Peter in prison and brought him two packets of Jaffa cakes but Peter had been transferred to a different jail so Carl sat there eating them by himself in the prison waiting room.
7. Morocco – When Peter burst into tears during an interview because Carl wouldn’t go on holiday to Morocco with him.
8. The fancy flip phone – Carl smashed his own brand new fancy flip phone in a rage during a fight with Peter because Peter wanted them to go to Paris together and Carl didn’t wanna go.
9. The vertical smile – Peter rather graphically describing staring at Carl’s bare ass while they were both shagging girls in a loo.
10. The threesome – Peter’s ex Katie Lewis aka the Katie of What Katie Did describing a threesome she had with Peter and Carl after a wasted night out. She’s low on detail but CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE. Like seriously.
11. The cinema screaming – Peter running around the cinema where he worked screaming like a banshee being chased by his female flatmate after stealing her cheques.
12. The break up kiss – After Peter split with Francesca he and Carl saw her in the street and she ran over to them and snogged Carl.
13. The jealous rant – It was one of many but Peter logging on to the forums complaining that everyone wanted to blow Carl “thrice a morning” was a spectacular tantrum.
14. The bed tying – Look it’s horrible they fought so hard but Carl solving an argument by literally tying Peter to his bed is just madness.
15. The shoe theft – Peter stole Carl’s shoes and Carl was so angry he went barefoot rather than borrowing someone else’s pair.
16. The naked cycle – That time Peter cycled naked back to the tour bus through the streets to try and get to a girl before Carl hooked up with her but failed to make it in time and was forced to watch them snog for hours instead. Also he had no clothes because the girl he had been with had locked him naked in a bathroom.
17. Arcadia and back – When Carl took Peter to his mother’s house and showed him the “wild woods” and “took him to Arcadia and back”.
18. The sniffer dog – Carl arrived in Japan for their tour utterly wasted and mistook a Beagle that was actually a drug detection dog as some kind of Japanese airport welcoming dog and thought it was the cutest thing ever so he sat there patting it while it sniffed him.
19. The poetry competition – Peter’s story about Carl drunkenly dragging him out of his tour bus bed in the middle of the night to have a typewriter poetry showdown and saying, “Everyone says you’re a great poet. This is poetry!” Then presenting Peter with a line Peter claims he actually wrote.
20. What a Waster – The indie amnesty tweet that claims Carl played What a Waster over and over to The Strokes while telling them he is the one who actually wrote it.
21. “I’m a poet!” – It’s ultimately a sad story of them having an awful row but Peter weeping, “I’m a poet!” to a police officer is just so Peter.
I turned off safe mode then my dash wouldn’t load lol