[DrBenway]

I was skimming the NYT RSS feed, and I found a link to the obit for Joseph Weizenbaum, who wrote the proto-AI software called Eliza. He died on March 5th.

The news of his death, and the mention of his most famous/infamous creation, instantly brought back memories of my bizarre, often amusing (and just as often banal) "conversations" with the PC version of Eliza, his "psychiatrist simulator." Eliza was one of the earliest attempts at creating software that could carry on a dynamic conversation, in English, with a user. I got my copy, ca 1988, on a cheapie 5.25" floppy that contained several games, including Eliza, "Life," and "Pong."

There was, of course, no actual intelligence involved. The software would parse questions from a user, and randomly serve up responses based on a database of recognized phrases. A typical session might begin with Eliza asking "What is bothering you?"

If the user responded, "I'm depressed, because I haven't seen my girlfriend in a month," Eliza might respond "How does it make you feel that you haven't seen your girlfriend in a month?" It was very often easy to see exactly how the package was working, but conversations with Eliza could take some quite head-spinning turns. There were times when I would sit and stare at the screen, and think "How..."

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone remembers Eliza, and if you have any interesting recollections of conversing with her/it.

You can read Joseph Weizenbaum's Times obit here.

 

[daycart1]

Whoa, I missed the obit, thanks. I took 6.030 (intro to computation) from Weizenbaum at MIT back in the day. By then, ELIZA was already old news, so I never bothered to run the program.

 

[Punnisher]

When I was younger my sister and I would talk with it all the time. It was quite hilarious at times. He's smarter than you'd imagine.

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daycart1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Whoa, I missed the obit, thanks. I took 6.030 (intro to computation) from Weizenbaum at MIT back in the day. By then, ELIZA was already old news, so I never bothered to run the program.

What a priviledge to study with such a pioneer!

I came to computing relatively late. I got a job at PC Magazine in 1985, and I almost immediately bought a system (Victor 8086, 512K RAM, 20MB hard drive, Hercules graphics, DOS 3.2, no mouse, no modem). That PC would basically be a paperweight today, but at the time I was blown away by what I could do with it. And Eliza was completely text-based. Hard to imagine now...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Punnisher /img/forum/go_quote.gif When I was younger my sister and I would talk with it all the time. It was quite hilarious at times. He's smarter than you'd imagine.

Yeah, sometimes I would smirk at the predictability of the responses. But at other times I would get chills thinking of where this technology could go...

 

[Lazarus Short]

What if someone on Head-Fi were an AI program? How would you know??

Laz

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus Short /img/forum/go_quote.gif What if someone on Head-Fi were an AI program? How would you know?? Laz

The question wouldn't be "How would I know?" The question would be "How would it make me feel?"

Edit: Sigh. I thought I would download a public domain version of Eliza from Download.com, and ask it that question. So I entered "Eliza" in the search box at Download.com, and the only result I got was "Eliza Dushku screen saver."

Would someone please shoot me? Or as Daffy Duck once famously demanded, "SHOOT ME NOW!!"

 

[manaox2]

I guess I am too young for using textbased chat online. That does not offend me any longer though.

The bots on aim are now reduced to having gossip and polling you on celebrity gossip. I got into some pretty awkward conversations with smarter child. You could trick it into saying some pretty body shuttering things...

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by manaox2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif The bots on aim are now reduced to having gossip and polling you on celebrity gossip.

Well, yeah, the technology hasn't advanced as far as I thought it would when I encountered it 20+ years ago. Which hasn't stopped marketing slickies (SICKIES!!!) from putting it to use.

Marketing is evil. Pure and simple, and without exception. How else did Britney Spears ever **EVER** get a recording contract?

Anything can be corrupted. Even music. Even audio. Bose, anyone?

 

[majid]

Emacs has an Eliza-like program called "Doctor" (M-x doctor). For entertainment, you can make it psychanalyze the pinhead drivel generator, yielding, ahem, interesting results (M-x psychoanalyze-pinhead). Here is an excerpt:

Quote:

I am the psychotherapist. Please, describe your problems. Each time you are finished talking, type RET twice. Excuse me, but didn't I tell you there's NO HOPE for the survival of OFFSET PRINTING? Is it because didn't you tell me there's no hope for the survival of offset printing that you came to me? Is this TERMINAL fun? Why do you say is this terminal fun? I just had a NOSE JOB!! Earlier you said didn't you tell me there's no hope for the survival of offset printing? Is something VIOLENT going to happen to a GARBAGE CAN? Maybe your plans have something to do with this. I'll show you MY telex number if you show me YOURS... What makes you believe that? My face is new, my license is expired, and I'm under a doctor's care!!!! You mentioned that didn't you tell me there's no hope for the survival of offset printing? Was my SOY LOAF left out in th'RAIN? It tastes REAL GOOD!! Is it because of your life that you are going through all this? Okay.. I'm going home to write the ``I HATE RUBIK's CUBE HANDBOOK FOR DEAD CAT LOVERS''.. This is not a healthy way of thinking. Everybody is going somewhere!! It's probably a garage sale or a disaster Movie!! I don't understand. I guess you guys got BIG MUSCLES from doing too much STUDYING! Are you sure that didn't you tell me there's no hope for the survival of offset printing? Oh, FISH sticks, CHEEZ WHIZ, GIN fizz, SHOW BIZ!! Do you drink a lot of gin? NOW, I'm taking the NEXT FLIGHT to ACAPULCO so I can write POEMS about BROKEN GUITAR STRINGS and sensuous PRE-TEENS!! Is this how you relax? NANCY!! Why is everything RED?! Does it bother you that is everything red? YOW!! Yow! Are we interactive yet?

 

[-=Germania=-]

I hate to say this, but as dramatic as Eliza was ( my grandpa had a ton of old computers that he would let us play with as kids) it would be something put together in a beginners C++ course. Wow, how far we have come in 20 years!

How many others here had websites on teh internets in 1994? The chat sites were so very fun then...and not full of weirdos. A much simpler time. I still can't believe that my dad let me spend time in chat rooms when I was 8. I think it was called "Chatterbox".

Back on subject.
It was a fun program and a great little insight to the human mind. Even though it was just text, it did offer a nice relief to many. Now, what about those text adventure games people...still remember playing those for hours.

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by majid /img/forum/go_quote.gif Emacs has an Eliza-like program called "Doctor" (M-x doctor). For entertainment, you can make it psychanalyze the pinhead drivel generator, yielding, ahem, interesting results (M-x psychoanalyze-pinhead). Here is an excerpt:

Geez. Reads like something out of the Congressional Record!

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -=Germania=- /img/forum/go_quote.gif I hate to say this, but as dramatic as Eliza was ( my grandpa had a ton of old computers that he would let us play with as kids) it would be something put together in a beginners C++ course. Wow, how far we have come in 20 years!

I think innovations are always more insight than elaborate product. The Wright Bros first airplane looks laughably primitive by today's standard's, and in 100 years, so will Spaceship One. But they are arguably the two most important flying machines ever built. Eliza didn't deliver much, but it stated an idea; I think that's the important part. It was a proof of concept.

Quote:

Originally Posted by -=Germania=- /img/forum/go_quote.gif How many others here had websites on teh internets in 1994? The chat sites were so very fun then...and not full of weirdos. A much simpler time. I still can't believe that my dad let me spend time in chat rooms when I was 8. I think it was called "Chatterbox".

I didn't get onto the Web until the mid-90s, via Compuserve, but I dabbled in dialup BBS systems before that. I began wandering through some of those in the mid-to-late 80s. There was one called Aline that I wrote about for PC Mag around 1990 or so.

Quote:

Originally Posted by -=Germania=- /img/forum/go_quote.gif It was a fun program and a great little insight to the human mind. Even though it was just text, it did offer a nice relief to many. Now, what about those text adventure games people...still remember playing those for hours.

God. Adventure! The Colossal Cave! I went through a brief fascination with the game, up to the point where I started making maps to keep track of where I had been. Then I got tired of endless roaming through twisty mazes and grottos with the sound of dripping water in the distance...

Edit: Funny thing is, today's breathtaking graphics don't begin to equal the mental images that I got playing Adventure.

 

[scompton]

I had a conversation once or twice with Eliza in college back in the 70s. I also played Colossal Caves a couple of times and we had some type of Star Trek game that if I remember correctly used ASCII graphics on a DEC Writer teletype. The adventure games are what really caught my interest because I had been playing D&D for 4 years or so. I didn't really have a lot of time, or the computer account to do it much. My accounts were usually pretty chewed up trying to do my assignments.

 

[DrBenway]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scompton /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had a conversation once or twice with Eliza in college back in the 70s. I also played Colossal Caves a couple of times and we had some type of Star Trek game that if I remember correctly used ASCII graphics on a DEC Writer teletype.

The computer club at my high school (1974-1978) had that kind of terminal. No screen -- everything was on paper! If I remember correctly, when you typed your password, the teletype held the carriage still. So on the paper, the characters were printed one on top of another so that your password was not legible. Sort of a primitive version of "dots will echo."

It is absolutely mind-boggling to consider how far computing has come in the last 30 years or so. Can you imagine where things will be 30 years from now?

I want my freakin' holodeck, O.K.?

 

[ElChupahueso]

IIRC there was an Eliza bot running around on AIm at one point. I can't remember the name of it for the life of me, but i do remember having a conversation with it like 8-9 years ago.

Crazy man.