In the news today, former MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum died. Weizenbaum, if'n you didn't know, designed, in 1966, an artificially intelligent computer program named Eliza, that was modelled after a Carl Rogers like therapist. The computer program fashioned therapeutic responses based on what you said to it. Weizenbaum's program was the vanguard of what was to become A.I.
In honor of his passing, I checked out a site where you can interact with an updated version of Eliza. I found it to be exceedingly fucking aggravating. Though, it made me think. I've been in this counseling Biz for about 18 years now, and never realized how annoying a therapist could be. After about five minutes of paraphrasing and repeating what I said, I wanted to stomp Eliza. I guess maybe that's what it's like to be exposed to a counselor. And Eliza is free on line, not $65 per hour. Check it out; you might like it.
http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/psych101/Eliza.htm
