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An interesting little excercise.

Will you let psychic Eliza... errmma... "cheat"?

You could have her run all sorts of online db lookups :alien008: to get as much personal info as she can, then blend it into her reading. (tuff code; huge woo!)

Kind of like that old carnival scam of telling a mark to close his eyes to concentrate while you flip thru his wallet id.
 
Will you let psychic Eliza... errmma... "cheat"?

You could have her run all sorts of online db lookups :alien008: to get as much personal info as she can, then blend it into her reading. (tuff code; huge woo!)

Kind of like that old carnival scam of telling a mark to close his eyes to concentrate while you flip thru his wallet id.

I think maybe the dumber the thing is the better it will be at proving the point. I want the dumbest bot that will still convince people.
 
All these comments are great.
I've decided I am going to do this, or try, but it may take me a little while.
 
BLAME THE CLIENT FOR NOT HAVING THE BOT WORK!!!

And if, at some point, the client types the phrase "are you a bot?" or something similar, have the bot get offended.
 
You can also use the general appearance of the "chat" to create a better illusion. Things like this:

At the start of the psychic reading session - use a delay and show the text "Please wait while we connect you to one of our personal guides."

Make sure there is a delay between the text from the "user" and the response.

Maybe "interrupt" the user at some stage with something like "wait - I'm getting something - ... ... - an older women?"

A spelling misstake or two is not wrong either.
 
BOT: "Have you been here before?"

N

BOT: "Please enter your first name, gender, and age."

Fnord
M
45 to 55

BOT: "Please wait while we connect you to one of our personal guides."

BOT: "Hello, my name is Sylvia. How may..."

:eek: ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4 ALT-F4
 
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Actually, I wouldn't do a question/answer bit.

I'd simply cretae text files for various categories, containing stock phrases. Have the "bot" randomly select a line from each file and put together the reading. You might have it ask a few questions initially, to add a bit pof personalization in the mix: name, age (might indicate certain categories to choose from, such as health/kids for older people or love/money for younger), sex, marital status.

Your categories would be things like love, relationships (for the married/engaged ones), friendships, social, employment, money, health, acts of god, etc. You'd want just one from each category, so your random selections wouldn't contradict each other. Some samples:
Love:
"You will meet someone soon, who will sem to be your heart's desire. They won't be all you think they are, but they'll be everything you need."
"I see you with a happy family" (could work for relationship as well)
Relationship:
"I see you growing old together, but not without some growing pains along the way."
Friendships:
"There is someone close to you, not a relative. Someone you talk to, and can tell many secrets. You will be close for a long time."
"Someone you count as a friend will let you down."
Social:
"You will gain the respect of some in your neighborhood/church/whatever."
Employment:
"I see big changes with your career over the next few years."
Money:
"You will come into to a large sum of money within the next year."
"I see financial trouble in your future, although the date is uncertain."
Health:
"I see some sort of health trouble, I seem to get a feeling in the chest area. See your doctor regularly, you have a good chance to avoid this before it becomes serious."
Acts of God:
"There will be a natural disaster in your area. Many will be killed, but you will survive."

A lot of these statements, generalized much like astrology, should do the trick. But I'd play it as a psychic machine, and have a link for "If you thought this reading was accurate, click here for an appointment for a more detailed reading!" You could play it up as the computer can get moe information if you come into the office so it can read your aura directly, possibly even have a fake webpage set up to "explain" the "science". I'd put the "hoax" announcement under a link to "Make an Appointment", and even add in a description of how you did it, and maybe a short explanation of why your "scientific" explanation on the fake page was wrong.

I could see this being a teaching tool for skepticism, with a brief explanation of confirmation bias and post hoc reasoning.
 
And if, at some point, the client types the phrase "are you a bot?" or something similar, have the bot get offended.

The character I am developing for this is a fairly smug, pushy person. The reader treats the clients as uninitiated twats, interrupts them, and ignores some of their statements. The reader is dismissive, eccentric and inclined to insert apparent non sequiturs into the conversation. In the context of a psychic reading these interjections actually make a crazy kind of sense. They also tend to have a certain enigmatic flavor about them that implies some underlying meaning.

With that as a basis I have two bots to work with - a very dumb one written in javascript which is very easy to modify for short term needs, and moderately smarter one (Still pretty dumb) that fits the bill more but requires a certain amount of study to get it working well.

SO I can model the web experience using the dumb bot and then swap bots for the smarter version when I'm ready.

I must be mad.
 
Make it dumb, make it cryptical, make it repeat some key cold reading/randomly cryptic phrase when there is an unrecognizable comment. Like this:
Bot: I see a fish
Client: I like to fish
Bot: Yes... I and hear the name John with the picture of a fish and I get this cold feeling...
Client: The John is acting weird he is not treating me like a friend.
Bot: (response to random comments) I told you. You attract what you focus on. (response to random questions) I can't help you with that, and you must solve it for yourself. Meditate on it and the universe will give you the answer.

And just keep blaming the feeble-minded client for not working.
 
The character I am developing for this is a fairly smug, pushy person. The reader treats the clients as uninitiated twats, interrupts them, and ignores some of their statements. The reader is dismissive, eccentric and inclined to insert apparent non sequiturs into the conversation. In the context of a psychic reading these interjections actually make a crazy kind of sense. They also tend to have a certain enigmatic flavor about them that implies some underlying meaning.

Yep ... I was right ... a dumbot named Sylvia ... :boggled:

Time to upgrade my firewalls.
 
Douglas Hofstadter describes a practical joke (played on him) in which he was asked to participate in a sort of Turing test, but his conversational partner was really three human beings pretending to be an intelligent computer. I must find the cite, it's a pretty funny exchange.
 
>> Hello.
How do you do. Please state your problem.
>> headaches
I'm not sure I understand you fully.
>> my head hurts
Your head hurts ?
>> yes
You seem to be quite positive.
>> postive?
Does that have anything to do with the fact that your head hurts ?
>> what the hell
Why do you ask ?
>> what the hell does this have to do with my head hurting
Why do you say your head hurting ?
>> because my head hurts
Does that suggest anything else which belongs to you ?
>> What, well I don't own a hammer to hit my head. So no it does not suggest anything else.
Does that question interest you ?
>> No
Are you saying no just to be negative?
>> No I'm not
You are being a bit negative.
>> what has this to do with anything
What is it you really wanted to know ?
>> Why does my head hurt?
Is it important that your head hurt ?
>> Yes
You are sure.
>> yes
I see.
>> and this anwser my question how?
Your question what ?
>> why does my head hurt?
Why do you say your head hurt ?
>> because it hurts
Is that the real reason ?
>> Yes it is.
I understand.
>> so the anwser is
Lets discuss further why your head hurting .
>> ok
But your head hurts .
>> yes
You seem to be quite positive.
>> Your repeating yourself
Why are you concerned over my repeating myself ?
>> because your not anwsering my question.
Does that suggest anything else which belongs to you ?
>> Anwser my question
Is it important that your question ?
>> What
Are such questions much on your mind ?
>> No
Why not ?
>> because it doesn't make sense
Don't any other reasons come to mind ?
>> no
Why 'no' ?
>> anwser my question
Your question ?
>> why does my head hurt
Why do you say your head hurt ?
>> Your stupid
What about your own stupid ?
>> So it like that now
Does that have anything to do with the fact that your head hurt ?
>> Idiot
Earlier you said your question what .
>> Stupid
Lets discuss further why your head hurt .
>> no lets discuss your stupidness
Are you saying no just to be negative?
>> see your stupid
Are you worried about someone else's stupid ?
>> no I worried that your stupid
You are being a bit negative.
>> end of conversation
Earlier you said your question .
http://chayden.net/eliza/Eliza.html
AI sucks

On a personal note. What if a person reads this and gets a idea to actually make on of these bots. They would earn alot of money.
 
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AI sucks

On a personal note. What if a person reads this and gets a idea to actually make on of these bots. They would earn alot of money.

Well, if I created what I most feared just by mentioning it, I'm sorry.

AI sucks on many levels. Let's look at the idea that that any computer intelligence is, in the early stages, very likely to be quite bureaucratic and unresponsive to basic human needs. This bot is exactly that. It proves a point on more than one level.

If it was really so easy a lot of people would have done it already. I haven't really come up with anything new. I'm trotting out the ethical implications of it, yes, but I'm not creating it exactly. I'm also not creating a new technology. I'm a web designer, a mediocre programmer with some absurd interests and a will to become a better programmer. That's all I am.

This, at its heart, is a practical joke, and I already have transcripts like yours to prove that my bot is dumber than any rock you might have met. That's the point here.

This is about people's willingness to believe. If you try to break it - it will break.

If you answer a cold reader with only yes or no answers they will fail.

It's the same.

Anyway. I have transcripts, but not a compelling bot. I'll post my first (let's say fifth) failed attempt when it is a little better.

NFG
 
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Use their favorite buzzwords

What a decicious hoax! I hope somebody can write it.
Use some of the woo-woo world's favorite buzzwords: energy, quantum, vibration, etc.
Example: "I'm worried about my iguana"
Program: "I'm getting quantum vibration from your iguana's energy fields.":)
 
Douglas Hofstadter describes a practical joke (played on him) in which he was asked to participate in a sort of Turing test, but his conversational partner was really three human beings pretending to be an intelligent computer. I must find the cite, it's a pretty funny exchange.

From memory it was reproduced in Metamagical Themas, but I'd have to check to be sure. It's a classic story and exactly the one I was thinking about while reading this thread.
 
I'm trying to prove that existence is just a big hoax, and René Descartes was working for the illuminatti - that bum!

"Think therefore I am" What nonsense!
 
Pay me NOT to, and I won't! I used to do readings, and even though I claimed to have no special 'powers' there were those who instisted that I did, and that I was just being modest.

Yeah ... me, modest ... LOL! :rolleyes:

You're not modest? :boggled: ;)

Myself I've gotten the "You're scared!" comment several times. I must deny my powers because they scare me! Yeah, right, :rolleyes: I would counter that certain others are more scared of reality...
 

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