Chapter 2: The Eliza Effect – Wardrip-Fruin
Eliza: is a ground-breaking system created by computer science researcher Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT in the mid-1960s.
The Eliza effect: a term used to describe the not-uncommon illusion that an interactive computer system is more “intelligent” or will eventually breakdown that take a form based on the actual underlying processes.
A session with Eliza can begin with a greeting, the script usually started with “How do you do. Please tell me your problem.” After this Eliza will not take the initiative again – only respond.
It actively searches for keywords that audience members type. Such as seeing “T” as “you”.
Each statement by an Eliza script is the result of a multi-step transformation of the most recent audience statement.
The real transformation difficulty comes, however, when no keywords – a central aspect of Eliza’s transformation logic – are found in the audience’s most recent text. For example, this is the situation when Eliza asks, “What else comes to mind when you think of your father,” and receives the response, “Bullies.”
Garfinkel’s experiment serves to illustrate something rather difficult: the Eliza effect can be shielded from breakdown by severely restricting interaction. The experiment allowed the subjects to maintain the illusion that something much more complex was going on inside the system (a human considering her problems seriously and answering question thoughtfully, rather than random yes/no answers) because the scope of possible responses was so limited.
When breakdown in Eliza effect occurs, its shape is often determined by that of the underlying processes. “IF” the output is of a legible form, the audience can then begin to develop a model of the processes. Allowing you to understand something of the processes of the system.
Appearing intelligent, but most systems of control have extremely restricted methods of interaction. Eliza was not the first system to give audiences the impression of meaningful exchange with a computer.