Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"My feeling is that the chance of our surviving into the twenty-first century as working civilization is less than fifty percent but greater than zero."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Sigfrid von Shrink | ||
| An automated therapist. |
Talk about passing the Turing test - this device could give the test!
| I hate it when he asks the same questions I ask myself. "Rob, you aren't very responsive today," Sigfrid says through the little loudspeaker at the head of the mat. Sometimes he uses a very lifelike dummy, sitting in an armchair, tapping a pencil and smiling quirkily at me from time to time. |
| Technovelgy from Gateway,
by Frederik Pohl. Published by St. Martin's Press in 1970 Additional resources -
|
In 1966 Joseph Weizenbaum published Eliza. A very short program (only a few hundred lines of code), was remarkably successful in creating the illusion of a computer psychotherapist. It works in a simple way; if the user mentions "I feel sad", Eliza might reply "Tell me more about feeling sad." Eliza worked by turning the user's question or statement around and giving it right back. This program succeeds for the same reason that that traditional talk therapy succeeds - people love to talk about themselves!
Want to talk with a real Sigfrid von Shrink? Go see ELIZA, the Computer Therapist. Just type your comment into the Input box and press return after each brief sentence. To readily see the limits of this approach, try typing something like "I feel asdfasdf" and see what you get.
Compare this device with
the robot psyche tester from Colony (1953) by Philip K. Dick,
the machine psychologist from James Blish's Cities in Flight,
the mechanotherapist from Bad Medicine (a 1956 Robert Sheckley story),
Dr. Smile, from Dick's 1964 novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Gateway
More Ideas
and Technology by Frederik Pohl
Tech news articles related to Gateway
Tech news articles related to works by Frederik Pohl
| Light Society: Simulates Earth-Scale Society With A Billion AI Agents |
| Collective Superintelligence Is At Hand! |
| AI Operates An Excavator |
| Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
