fginionio

Looks like you found our answer! Someone's already done the hard work.

I think the approach I would use is as follows:

0. Get a dictionary.

1. Form a directed graph, with an edge from each word to every word that uses that word in its definition.

2. Remove all words that have no outgoing edges.

3. If you removed some words, go to step 1. Otherwise, all words left in the dictionary are minimal.

EDIT: If anyone knows of a machine-readable dictionary, I'd love to actually do this.

Nowadays, rule-breaking is no longer provocative. It's derivative. We all got the memo: there's no set definition of art, it doesn't need to be skillfully made, it doesn't need to be beautiful, it can be offensive, blah blah blah. It's not clever any more.

I respect Duchamp. He made his point so eloquently that none of the imitators are adding anything to the conversation.