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From: jqb@netcom.com (Jim Balter)
Subject: Re: Eliza (was Re: Are there non-humans lurking on Internet/Usenet?)
Message-ID: <jqbD3pAEo.6p8@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <mtm4.568.01C182F4@rsvl.unisys.com> <3h2qas$m4f@percy.cs.bham.ac.uk> <3h3flr$lhl@crl4.crl.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 21:30:23 GMT
Lines: 36
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai.nat-lang:2825 comp.ai:27247 comp.ai.philosophy:25340

In article <3h3flr$lhl@crl4.crl.com>, Andrea Chen <dbennett@crl.com> wrote:
>
>
>Eliza totally horrified its author.  If one went along with the game, it
>made a plausible imitation of a Rogerian therapist who essentially
>sits back and lets people wander.

In what way are syntactically confused and often irrelevant responses
"plausible"?  And plausible to whom?  Certainly not to Rogerian therapists.

>And people did wander,  they confessed
>to it things that they never told anyone.  They thought it was "real".

Those people obviously had a strong desire to tell these things, strong enough
to ignore what was actually being said by Eliza. 

>Some people used it to "prove" that soon we would have "computerized
>therapy".

Which people?  AI professionals?

>As a result Wiezembaum (if I remmeber the authors name
>correctly) moved from a leading light in AI to one of its bitterst
>enemies.

This says nothing without detailing the nature of the criticism.  The Eliza
experience may tell us a lot about human behavior, it may tell us about
the accuracy of Paul Roger's insights, it may tell us something about 
about how readily some people romanticize things and jump to conclusions,
but what does it tell us about AI?  Does the fact that baby monkeys will
cling to a fur-covered board as if it were their mother tell us anything
about attempts to grow life in test tubes?

-- 
<J Q B>

