Computer Power and Human Reason

   For starters, let me say I'm not so sure I fully understood this article. Or I did and it was incredibly simple...one or the other. It seemed to me Wiezenbaum was trying to tell the therapists from the 70's to calm down, and that his 'doctor' program couldn't go on to be a fully automated theraputic program because computers lack wisdom and reason. The real underlying problem, according to Wiezenbaum (and as a Comm. major I agree), is that the computer lacks the basic understanding of the language because it was recieving input out of context. The importance of the context of what's being said is huge in actually understanding any given situation. And even though in the Rogerian theraputic form, which simplified things for the programer because it basically just regurgitates whats been said to keep a 'subject' talking, the out of context understanding the computer demonstrated made it obvious to him that it could never replace human interaction in therapy sessions.
   What I found myself thinking, however, is how we are all programed, to a certain degree, to respond to certain things in certain ways. I mean, the 'how are you?' question we've all been asked a million times is almost always answered 'fine, and you?' even if your not fine, and don't care how they are. The difference, as Weizenbaum points out, that we read and understand the context of the situation, and can therefore alter the feedback/response accordingly. I hope that's what we were supposed to get out of this article, cause that's what I got...until next time, Sharxjay.