First, assuming that psychologists are just ordinary people (yes, I know, a questionable assumption especially when it comes to experimental psychologists ;-), I have no doubt that some number of them have been "Catfished" (i.e., been in a romantic relationship with a made-up person without knowing that the person is made-up). But, because psychologists tend to think of themselves as something special (you clinical psychologists know who you are ;-), it should come as no surprise that they probably are "Catfished" in "special" ways. One "special" way is to be "Catfished" is by a "Chatterbot".
What is a "chatterbot"? It is an AI program that creates the impression that one is interacting with a human being and represents a research development in response to the Turing test which gave rise to Weizenbaum's Eliza which gave rise to Parry the paranoid schizophrenic and to the software package you're talking to when you call up the service center of some companies. For more info on chatterbots, see the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatterbot For Eliza, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA For Parry, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARRY For when Parry met Eliza, see: http://www.generation5.org/content/1999/page04.asp Second, so what does this have to do with psychologists? Well, read the following and weep: http://drrobertepstein.com/downloads/FROM_RUSSIA_WITH_LOVE-Epstein-Sci_Am_Mind-Oct-Nov2007.pdf Readers of "Scientific American MIND", you can cancel your subscriptions now. ;-) I guess some psychologists are "special" after all. ;-) -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] P.S. Fans of the Ben Stiller movie "Tropic Thunder" know that there is a version of the movie that appeared in the theaters and is available on DVD and then there is a "sanitized" version that is shown on commercial TV/basic cable. One of the sanitized scenes makes heavy use of the word "special". It is that sense of that word that I am using above. ;-) --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=23205 or send a blank email to leave-23205-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
