NP robot email interlocutors

[Doug Millison]

Maybe somebody could cook up one of these for Pynchon-L, software 
that would remember what we post, then regurgitate it "sometimes 
seemingly intelligently, often incoherently" and always adding that 
obligatory insulting twist that's become the hallmark of discourse on 
this listserve.

But, wait, I almost forgot, we've got our own RJJBOR/MORRIS software 
sub-systems modules that perform this task already....


from Netsurfer Digest, Volume 06, Issue 31, Friday, September 08, 2000:
Eliza, Meet Biz
"Tell me more about that." Way back in the '60s, Joseph Weizenbaum, 
then an MIT professor, cooked up Eliza, a simple computer program 
that relentlessly carried on a typed conversation using a library of 
responses and the knack of identifying key words to use in its 
replies. Now, Kevin Fox has unleashed a version of this program on 
AOL's instant messaging service (AIM) and posted some of the amusing 
results. Read the transcripts, read how it was done, and then just 
shake your head. "Please go on." Another bot waiting to fool the 
unsuspecting using AIM is Biz, a program that remembers everything 
you say and regurgitates it sometimes seemingly intelligently, often 
incoherently. That we will carry on conversations with these things 
and reveal highly personal information is a poignant comment on the 
human need for someone who understands us. Is there a real therapy 
opportunity here? Logically, what we should do now is get these 
things talking to each other. Eliza, meet Biz. "Does it make you feel 
strong to use that kind of language?"
Eliza: <http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,38517,00.html> 
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,38517,00.html
Kevin: <http://fury.com/aoliza/index2.php> http://fury.com/aoliza/index2.php
Biz: <http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,38565,00.html> 
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,38565,00.html


.... Just joking!

  "It's a text, a text, a text, only a text" or whatever it is that 
davemarc says.