How can a statistical representation of reason ever be reason itself?

Users of Eliza [1] could convince themselves that the programme was intelligent, much to the dismay of Weizenbaum. It is no surprise that people will claim that more complex (and poorly understood) applications are intelligent.

If our own salesbabble and technology can be used to bamboozle us and defeat our willingness to understand, we have fully regressed to credulity and Carl Sagan's state of captured idiocy. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA_effect

[2] If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. -- C.S. , Demon-Haunted World

	▲	dizlexic 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		A tangent, but I remember having a version Eliza on our family Macintosh SE as a kid, and my brothers and I would spend way too much time typing inappropriate things trying to get a silly response. I think you have a very important point, and I'm amazed I've never heard of the Eliza Effect.