Newsgroups: comp.ai.nat-lang,alt.cyberspace,alt.net-scandal,comp.ai,comp.ai.philosophy
From: ohgs@chatham.demon.co.uk (Oliver Sparrow)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!peernews.demon.co.uk!chatham.demon.co.uk!ohgs
Subject: Re: Eliza (was Re: Are there non-humans lurking on Internet/Usenet?)
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Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 08:38:59 +0000
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai.nat-lang:2810 comp.ai:27215 comp.ai.philosophy:25310

In the weird days of the late Seventies, it was held to be fruitful to
management teams that they should give up a weekend of their time in order
to go to a retreat and there scream abuse at each other. These T group
sessions tended to have the downside of Monday morning with which to contend,
so people looked about for soemthing different to sell. They settled upon
the Red Chair.

If Eliza was a simple program, the Red Chair is simplicity itself: you need
a room, two chairs (one of them red) and a hapless middle manager who has been 
told that this will enhance his qualities as a team player and generally 
improve his chances of advancement.

The individual concerned it told that the red chair contains an all-wise, 
invisible and silent observer. It is suggested that the session is, however, 
to be observed from time to time by unobtrusive means. The subject is, 
typically, feeling that this is a test, a trial at which they can succeed or 
fail.They are highly prepared to enter into the fanatsy which has been
created for them. They are taken through a warm up session, being encouraged 
both to find the sorts of questions which the throne of sapience would be 
likely to ask them; and to give a response to these. The door is then shut
and the facilitator moves on to the next "client", leaving the subject talking 
to the furniture. There is, however, no observer in the chair or out of it;  
but this does not stop people from screaming at the chair, throwing their 
clothes off, from bursting into tears and generally building themselves to the 
finest pitch of hysteria. They have their little stage set and this is their 
chance to undo their primal wingnut.

If a chair can pass the emotional Turing test, then what does this tell us? 

_________________________________________________

  Oliver Sparrow
  ohgs@chatham.demon.co.uk
