Skip to content
Culture & Religion

Shakespeare’s CPU

A new computer algorithm analyzes the frequency of unique words used by authors in an attempt to quantify literary style.
Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

“What’s the difference between Shakespeare and Dan Brown? According to a study in the New Journal of Physics, part of the difference lies in the number and frequency of the words they use. By analyzing the works of Herman Melville, Thomas Hardy, and D. H. Lawrence, researchers argued, according to the BBC, that ‘counting the number of unique words as a particular author’s works get longer and longer’ can be used to construct a ‘unique word’ curve which functions as a ‘linguistic fingerprint.’ Really? While some folks call it a breakthrough, others are skeptical. Even if this is true, they ask, what’s the purpose of a complicated equation to confirm what humans already knew?”

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Related
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur in sem nisi. Donec at convallis felis. Curabitur id mattis libero. Nunc maximus dolor eget iaculis lobortis. Mauris eros mi, mattis […]
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean volutpat ultricies nibh, ac placerat urna. Vivamus augue arcu, consectetur vitae est mollis, laoreet congue ante. Quisque a aliquet eros, ac […]

Up Next
That Apple purchased the domain name islate.com back in 2007 might hint at the name of its oft rumored tablet computer.