A New Zealand professor writes an entire nonsense paper using Apple autocomplete which got accepted for an academic conference

Pre discussion questions

What do you think will be interesting about today’s topic?

How hard do you think it would or should be to get accepted to present your academic research to other professors?

A professor in New Zealand has written an academic research paper entirely by Apple's iOS autocomplete.  The research paper was subsequently filled with words that you could not understand. But the funny part is that he has been invited to present his research paper at a nuclear physics conference.

Christopher Bartneck, an associate professor at the University of Canterbury's Human Interface Technology laboratory in New Zealand, was stunned to discover he had been successful to get invited to the conference in the USA.

He said that he started a sentence with 'Atomic' or 'Nuclear' in the search. And then he randomly hit the autocomplete suggestions. He said that you can’t understand the writing.

He also said that he has almost no knowledge of Nuclear Physics. So he resorted to the phones iOS auto-complete to help him.

The research paper is complete garbage and you won’t understand it if you read it.

For example:

"Nuclear weapons will not have to come out the same day after a long time of the year,"

He also made up a joke name - 'Iris Pear'

Another example of the baffling writing is:

"The atoms of a better universe will have the right for the same as you," and: "Physics are great but the way it does it makes you want a good book."

The paper's title was also made up by the Apple iOS system. And the title is also is baffling.

The title says:

"Atomic Energy will have been made available to a single source."

The professor said he added the first picture he saw on Wikipedia with a picture of nuclear physics and so made a fake name, Iris Pear.

He did not think that anybody would believe his fake research. So he made up "Umbria Polytech University" located in :Infinite Loop" in Cupertino, California.

But within just three hours he received an acceptance email in his inbox.

However, he stopped his prank when he was asked to register for the conference. The cost for the conference is $1,099.

He told the Guardian newspaper in Australia that his university would not allow him to waste money on a trip like this. He also said that his impression is that this is not a very good conference.

Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary depending on how they are used.

 The answers are below the table.

A=4, B=8, C=1, D=6, E=7, F=2, G=5, H=3 

Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.

1.      I was entirely happy with the work that they did.

2.      I did not have enough money for a taxi, subsequently I had to catch a bus.

3.      We were stunned to hear the news about the president’s wrongdoing.

4.      It was a random event that I met him in the subway in the middle of Seoul.

5.      If you are angry, then don’t resort to violence with students by hitting them.

6.      I was baffled that he accepted the very low price.

7.      On April 01^st people make pranks that are funny.

8.      The work on the new phone’s screen is impressive.

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1.      Are you entirely surprised by this story?

2.      How stunned would you feel if what happened in this story happened to you?

3.      Why do you think the professor resorted to this prank?

4.      Subsequent to you leaving university, what job do you want or did you get?

5.      Describe something random that happened in your life?

6.      Do you find physics a baffling subject?

7.      What pranks do you remember in your first year at university? What pranks do you remember from April Fool’s day?

8.      What kind of person impresses you?