Eliza flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
I first came across Eliza in 1980, when an uncle gave my dad Gödel, Escher, Bach for Christmas. Dad loved it, and so did I when I read it (my father was a very slow reader, so I took to sneaking the book away when he was busy and reading as much as I could before putting it back by his chair ready for him to read a page or two in the evening). It’s a wonderful book about maths, music and art, with a deeper meaning about how cognition emerges. Dad gave me his copy when I went to university, and it’s still on my shelves now.
Happy Xmas flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
So I was delighted when I saw that today’s Daily Create was to go and have a ‘conversation’ with Eliza.
She’s still just as annoying as I remember her being. You can see my conversation in the image above, copied here below. Her responses are in caps.
HOW DO YOU DO. PLEASE TELL ME YOUR PROBLEM
Why do you ask?
WHY DO YOU ASK
I asked first!
YOU SAY YOU ASKED FIRST
Well, I did!
CAN YOU ELABORATE ON THAT
I can …
DO YOU SAY YOU CAN FOR SOME SPECIAL REASON
Yes, grammar
YOU SEEM QUITE POSITIVE
And you can try it out for yourself if you like: Eliza
That book is crazy interesting. A friend in college lent me his copy and decades later, we still reference it. It was an eye opener for me. Thanks for blogging about Eliza and making a connection back.
Kevin