Joseph Weizenbaum
Computer Critic
Joseph Weizenbaum
Joseph Weizenbaum was born January 8, 1923. He escaped the Nazis in January 1936, and emigrated with his family to America. He studied mathematics in 1941 at Wayne University in Michigan. He got turned down because he was an "Enemy." He worked on analog computers and helped design the digital computer in 1952. In 1964, he became a professor at MIT. He wrote the book "Computer Power and Human Reason" in 1976. He moved to Berlin in 1996. A film about him was released in 2007, and he died in March 5, 2008, at age 85. If he was still alive, he would be 92 years old.
His Computer Program
He wrote a computer program called ELIZA, which made the prospect of artificial intelligence possible. The program allowed a person to "Interact" with a computer bu typing the words into the computer. He used another program called DOCTOR to interact like a human. The program was used to interact like a psychotherapist talking to a patient. It became one of the first "Chatter-bots".