A mechanism or tactic · 1966 · Contemporary
The dialogue programs
ELIZA, PARRY and Colby - three programs that convinced people they were listening.
All three were written to be good enough to be believed, and the belief was studied as a phenomenon rather than treated as a bug.
Application. One-sided attachment put to work on purpose. Creator economies, community, fandom as infrastructure, and the things that genuinely help people. Not automatically good - a tool with an obvious use is a tool that will also get a bad one.
Consideration. The part where somebody stops and thinks. The research, the diagnosis, the ethics, the lawsuits, the regulators. Roughly fifty years of arguing with itself about whether this is a relationship.
Where it sits
1950 1950-1999 · 1966 1999
Provenance · 1 source record(s)
- needs-sourceWeizenbaum (ELIZA), Colby (PARRY), and Colby's follow-up work.Standard history of early natural-language programs, 1966-1975.
COMPANION The companion chatbot
Connected · 1 out, 0 in
It sits in