Eliza (BASIC version)

This is a recreation of a 1977 BASIC version of Eliza. It is not the original

The original ELIZA was written at MIT by Joseph Weizenbaum in SLIP (Symmetric LIst Processor) between 1964 and 1966 as a "A Computer Program For the Study of Natural Language Communication Between Man And Machine" and later rewritten in Lisp (List Processor). It is a very early example of what is now known as a "chat bot".

The version of Eliza that the greatest number of people would have had access to was written in BASIC and appeared in Creative Computing in 1977 (although it was written in 1973 by Jeff Shrager). This Android version is a recreation of the 1977 Basic version (with a couple of minor fixes) and as such has the same limitations as that version. Although this program is an inferior imitation of the original SLIP version, it does work.

Weizenbaum said that ELIZA provided a "parody" of the responses of a nondirectional psychotherapist in an initial psychiatric interview.

ELIZA was named after Eliza Doolittle, a working-class character in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, who is taught to speak with an upper-class accent.

Since Eliza is a non-directive therapist, you have to carry the conversation, nevertheless, that can lead to some mighty interesting results. She works best if you talk to her in complete sentences and if those sentences are kept fairly short. She does not care about upper and lower case letters or punctuation. She can be difficult to talk with and her English is not always the best, but with a little practice, you can have very interesting conversations with her.

Visit the developer's web site (http://www.cyberspyder.com/Android/Eliza.html) for more details.

If you enjoy Eliza, please leave us a good review. If you run into any problems, please contact us so we can resolve any issues.