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JBatjj t1_ix0fdnr wrote

Reply to comment by chumloadio in TIL after a seizure left him paralyzed except for his left eyelid, Jean-Dominique Bauby (1952-1997) wrote the bestselling book "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by blinking to select each letter as an assistant recited the alphabet to him. by chumloadio

Like a compression algorithm. Blink once quick for e, once quick and one long for a, two quick for r

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F4L2OYD13 t1_ix0iwap wrote

what we aren't considering is how much blinking would need to occur to discuss and agree on that system

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JBatjj t1_ix0yxgv wrote

Because you show a diagram at all times and the blinker has no choice but to use it...

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F4L2OYD13 t1_ix2kkgr wrote

yes I'm sure he wasn't a part of orchestrating the system. They just realized they had a captive writer and forced a book on him.

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Officer_Hops t1_ix19st1 wrote

To be fair it’s not like the blinker has to agree, they don’t have much of a choice.

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zKarp t1_ix3bjkc wrote

He could just close his eye and fall asleep.

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kytheon t1_ix0kjqu wrote

Like Morse code lol, would be faster

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DMala t1_ix2nvlc wrote

That's always my first thought when this story comes up. In the same situation (assuming I could persevere at all) my first request would be for a table of Morse. The tedium of going through the alphabet over and over just seems like the torture.

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drekwithoutpolitics t1_ix3nd2t wrote

I could see Morse being harder to get started and way easier to get discouraged if I’m already quite disabled and wanting to write a novel.

Someone mentioned they had an alphabet ordered by letter frequency, so I could see the two of them optimizing quickly.

Like, at the beginning of a sentence,

“S” blink

Ok… it’s not another S. “A…” no blink “E,” etc. as a simple example.

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JBatjj t1_ix0z2sa wrote

True. Others would be even faster though

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stoneman9284 t1_ix16ntz wrote

It says the recited the alphabet. That doesn’t sound like coded blink sequences.

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JBatjj t1_ix17mc2 wrote

The wikipedia article says "26-letter alphabet according to the frequency of use"

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stoneman9284 t1_ix18fgz wrote

Right. I interpret that to mean she recited the “alphabet” like a-e-s-t-etc instead of a-b-c-d-etc

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JBatjj t1_ix3lies wrote

Oh ya, I agree with you. My comment was more what you would do if you actually followed a compression algorithm tree. Idk I was really high when I commented.

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