Talk:ELIZA

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This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.

All computers so far devised (ignoring Quantum Computers) are proven equivalent to the Turing Machine. Even including Quantum Computers we have no working example of a computer which is not a Turing Machine. If there is no magic spark or soul then Man is but another machine.

The brain is thought by many, including most proponents of Strong AI, to be a computer. We have no evidence other than prejudice or arrogance to think it is a different type of computer (it has no known quantum mechanism) so quite possibly the brain is the equivalent of the Turing Machine. So the limitations of computers put forward by Weizenbaum might apply also to Weizenbaum himself, as an instance of Man.

W. wrote an interesting program but, in the opinion of many, drew an unwarranted conclusion.

Psb777 07:04, 26 Jan 2004 (UTC)

As did you, read about quantum consciousness by Stuart Hameroff. Oh, can someone put in ELIZA's size[s]? lysdexia 01:44, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Does this article describe "Eliza" or "Doctor"

I had the impression that Eliza was quite different from what the article describes:

1. Eliza is a program that can be "taught" (via a configuration file) to converse. That's why it was named after Eliza Doolittle (who _was_ taught to talk but _wasn't_ a therapist).

2. Several configuration files were created. The one that talked like a therapist was named "Doctor". This "Doctor" script is what the article describes.

3. The program is named after Eliza Doolittle; it isn't an acronym, and isn't written all-caps.

I'm not editing the article because I don't recall my source (either it was some guy in a bar, or I read it on Wikipedia; one questionable source or another).


[edit] Mergement of ELIZA and ELIZA game

They're the same thing, merge away.

[edit] Where is Weizenbaum's Implementation?

What programming language(s) did he use? Rwwww 08:03, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Original Paper

The original ACM paper "ELIZA--A Computer Program For the Study of Natural Language Communication Between Man and Machine" lives at http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=365168&dl=ACM&coll=GUIDE but is ACM-subscription only there. It is also available elsewhere: http://i5.nyu.edu/~mm64/x52.9265/january1966.html

This is great, I am adding this to the main page because I was looking for something exactly like this early and it really should be off the main page. Uselesswarrior 18:40, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
Who the heck took this down and why? This link is invaluable and more enlightening then any of the implementations or the article itself. I mean seriously, you take this link down and leave up project Prometheus? Have you tried that? It is the most awful eliza program I have ever used and there are links to porn sites off the linked site. Uselesswarrior 04:14, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

The paper says that the original ELIZA was writen in "MAD-SLIP for the IBM 7094". It does seem to be true that the "doctor" script was only one of the original ELIZA scripts, but it is by far the most famous. I would also like to mention emacs's 'psychanalyze-pinhead.el' script, which feeds "Zippy the Pinhead" quotes to 'doctor.el'. For completeness, if nothing else. --Sgorton 18:34, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Eliza test

Here is a website where you can test Eliza: http://www.chayden.net/eliza/Eliza.html Do you think that this should be included in the article? Trilby*foxglove 20:14, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removal of "Ecala eclipsed the functionality of ELIZA..."

I can't find any other references to this, and only a few to Ecala. I think this sentence should be removed, or if nothing else moved somewhere else (it really breaks up the flow of the paragraph):

... Although those programs included years of research and work (while Ecala eclipsed the functionality of ELIZA after less than two weeks of work by a single programmer)[citation needed], ELIZA remains a milestone simply because it was the...

Wolever (talk) 01:55, 11 February 2008 (UTC)


This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.

All computers so far devised (ignoring Quantum Computers) are proven equivalent to the Turing Machine. Even including Quantum Computers we have no working example of a computer which is not a Turing Machine. If there is no magic spark or soul then Man is but another machine.

The brain is thought by many, including most proponents of Strong AI, to be a computer. We have no evidence other than prejudice or arrogance to think it is a different type of computer (it has no known quantum mechanism) so quite possibly the brain is the equivalent of the Turing Machine. So the limitations of computers put forward by Weizenbaum might apply also to Weizenbaum himself, as an instance of Man.

W. wrote an interesting program but, in the opinion of many, drew an unwarranted conclusion.

Psb777 07:04, 26 Jan 2004 (UTC)

As did you, read about quantum consciousness by Stuart Hameroff. Oh, can someone put in ELIZA's size[s]? lysdexia 01:44, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Does this article describe "Eliza" or "Doctor"

I had the impression that Eliza was quite different from what the article describes:

1. Eliza is a program that can be "taught" (via a configuration file) to converse. That's why it was named after Eliza Doolittle (who _was_ taught to talk but _wasn't_ a therapist).

2. Several configuration files were created. The one that talked like a therapist was named "Doctor". This "Doctor" script is what the article describes.

3. The program is named after Eliza Doolittle; it isn't an acronym, and isn't written all-caps.

I'm not editing the article because I don't recall my source (either it was some guy in a bar, or I read it on Wikipedia; one questionable source or another).


[edit] Mergement of ELIZA and ELIZA game

They're the same thing, merge away.

[edit] Where is Weizenbaum's Implementation?

What programming language(s) did he use? Rwwww 08:03, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Original Paper

The original ACM paper "ELIZA--A Computer Program For the Study of Natural Language Communication Between Man and Machine" lives at http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=365168&dl=ACM&coll=GUIDE but is ACM-subscription only there. It is also available elsewhere: http://i5.nyu.edu/~mm64/x52.9265/january1966.html

This is great, I am adding this to the main page because I was looking for something exactly like this early and it really should be off the main page. Uselesswarrior 18:40, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
Who the heck took this down and why? This link is invaluable and more enlightening then any of the implementations or the article itself. I mean seriously, you take this link down and leave up project Prometheus? Have you tried that? It is the most awful eliza program I have ever used and there are links to porn sites off the linked site. Uselesswarrior 04:14, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

The paper says that the original ELIZA was writen in "MAD-SLIP for the IBM 7094". It does seem to be true that the "doctor" script was only one of the original ELIZA scripts, but it is by far the most famous. I would also like to mention emacs's 'psychanalyze-pinhead.el' script, which feeds "Zippy the Pinhead" quotes to 'doctor.el'. For completeness, if nothing else. --Sgorton 18:34, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Eliza test

Here is a website where you can test Eliza: http://www.chayden.net/eliza/Eliza.html Do you think that this should be included in the article? Trilby*foxglove 20:14, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removal of "Ecala eclipsed the functionality of ELIZA..."

I can't find any other references to this, and only a few to Ecala. I think this sentence should be removed, or if nothing else moved somewhere else (it really breaks up the flow of the paragraph):

... Although those programs included years of research and work (while Ecala eclipsed the functionality of ELIZA after less than two weeks of work by a single programmer)[citation needed], ELIZA remains a milestone simply because it was the...

Wolever (talk) 01:55, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup to implementations

Here is a suggested cleanup of the implementations list

Wolever (talk) 02:08, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 1962 or 1966?

The Weizenbaum article states "In 1962, he published a comparatively simple program called ELIZA..." This article states that ELIZA was "designed in 1966." Am I misunderstanding, or is there a contradiction?

--Sstrader (talk) 18:22, 7 March 2008 (UTC)