lung, meet rewind

[msrewind]

She gets the note just before lunch. She's in the PHQ in less than twenty minutes, then she knocks on Piggot's door politely.

Comments

[thinkering]

"Not really, I never conventionally studied the stuff."

[mrglam]

"Eh, there are probably good enough guides and tutorials online."

[thinkering]

"Yeah, I think programming's one of the easiest things to pick up using only the internet."

[mrglam]

"Probably. I think I might learn more if I actually have something to do with the language, though."

[thinkering]

"Like what?"

[mrglam]

"Dunno, it just sounds like the kind of thing that's easier to learn doing than, like, studying."

[thinkering]

"Fair enough. I think some people make calculators? Or really simple chatbots."

[mrglam]

"A calculator sounds like a good milestone. A chatbot sounds... more complicated."

[thinkering]

"A simple chatbot. Like Eliza."

[mrglam]

"I have no idea who Eliza is."

[thinkering]

"Eliza's a chatbot that parrots your own poorly re-grammared statements back at you with therapist-speak appended."

[mrglam]

"Therapist speak?"

[thinkering]

"Yeah, like 'and how do you feel about insert sentence here' or 'is it important to you that insert sentence here' or whatever."

[mrglam]

"Oh. Yeah that's easier."

[thinkering]

"Much."

[mrglam]

"Eliza sounds a bit obnoxious, though."

[thinkering]

"Yeah, not a very good conversationalist."

[mrglam]

"Might pass a very simple version of a Turing test though."

[thinkering]

"Sure, if a dumb person's administering it."

[mrglam]

"Could be a kid thinking it's a shrink."

[thinkering]

"Yeah, turns out the basic Turing test is easy to pass because humans come in 'really bad conversationalist'."

[mrglam]

"Yup, sometimes they do. I'm harder to fool, though."

[thinkering]

"And the bot is trying to impersonate a specific human, not just any human."

[mrglam]

"Yeah. It definitely can impersonate a generic human perfectly."

[thinkering]

"Mm-hm."