This reminds me of something we did for a high school fundraising fair, way back in CP/M days. We set up a computer station runing an “astrology” program that asked for name/date & time of birth/location of birth, and then “calculated” their “horoscope” (with much flashing on the screen of charts and ascii art graphics), and then it printed out a “personalized” reading. All for a buck, such a bargain!
It was just a scam, of course. None of us knew anything about astrology, and we made no attempt to do any genuine calculations other than looking up the sun sign off the usual chart.
We had just built up a database of a bunch of sentences, mostly from published horoscopes from back issues of newspaper. We split those into areas:
Astrological sounding phrases: “The rising moon in your fourth house is now moving into trine with Neptune.”
Personality blather that applies to just about everyone: “On the surface you appear confident, but underneath you are frequently besets by doubts.”
Simplistic advice about general health: “Trying to burn the candle at both ends will only leave you short-tempered. Take time to treat your body right, and you will get further in the long run.”
General wheezing that could apply to work or study or any other pursuit: “Your enthusiasm for a long-term project has been on the wane, but now is not the time to give up! Redouble your efforts and an unexpected source of help will bring success closer.”
Relationships/romance ramblings: “True love does not hide in exotic climates: shorten your focus and look closer at the people around you.”
Predictions of woes giving away to good things eventually: “Shortly you will undergo a new experience, and it will leave you with great insight on your situation. You will realize that what looks like roadblocks to you now are in truth doorways leading to fulfilling new adventures.”
The program just spit back a header with the data the “client” had entered, and then printed out paragraphs formed by randomly selecting from 2 to 4 sentences in each area.
The reactions of the buyers was what was amazing: NOBODY complained that their reading was wrong. At most, someone would say, “Well, I’m not sure about this bit here, but the rest of it is right on.”
An awful lot of people wouldn’t let the people with them read their printouts – they said it was ‘too personal’ to share.
Amazing, huh?