Chapter 24

1976
Joseph Wizenbaum

• discussed the negative consequences of his own technological designs
• urged other scientists and technologists to "take responsibility for the use of that which they discover and develop
• created the "Eliza" system from 1964-1966, which ran a set of scripts called "Doctor" which impersonated a psycho-therapist
• Wizenbaum feared that applications like his that would employ human language would blur the aapropriate functions for technology in a negative way
• the Eliza program inspired others to create other psychiatric simulations lie Kenneth Colby's Perry and Depression 2.0

As Turkle described, I do not believe that programs like Eliza distort our view of humanity because it did not possess enough variability to actually fool someone, but I wonder if a program was created today to act as a therapist would we be able to make a believable one? How would this affect us if we could actually treated and diagnosed by a computer?