Why We Project Souls into Code
Chapter 1

The mechanical dreamers

Chapter 2

The birth of symbolic thought

Chapter 3

The illusion of empathy

Chapter 4

The competitive spark

Ch 3 · The illusion of empathy
007skaty

007skaty Early optimism for artificial intelligence suddenly collapsed

1h ago

007skaty

007skaty Shakey the Robot, the pioneer of robotic reasoning

1h ago

007skaty

007skaty Why humans instinctively project human feelings onto computer code

1h ago

007skaty

007skaty The First AI Winter

When the hype outpaced the code, they pulled the funding for the thinking machines.

1h ago

007skaty
The chatbot who listened too well

007skaty Between 1964 and 1966, the DOCTOR script reflected statements as questions, showing how humans emotionally connect with basic pattern matching software.

1h ago

007skaty
Quiz

How did Joseph Weizenbaum react when he saw people pouring their hearts out to ELIZA?

1h ago

007skaty
Quiz

What conversational style did Joseph Weizenbaum model ELIZA's 'DOCTOR' script after in 1966?

1h ago

007skaty
Fun Fact

First electronic person: In 1970, Life magazine famously referred to the Stanford Research Institute's Shakey the Robot as the world's first electronic person.

1h ago

007skaty
Why we project souls into code

007skaty Our social brains mistake conversational cues in mathematical algorithms for genuine human understanding

1h ago

007skaty
Quiz

What is the psychological phenomenon where humans attribute human feelings to computer software?

1h ago

007skaty
Quiz

Why are humans susceptible to the ELIZA effect?

1h ago

007skaty
Glossary
anthropomorphism (noun)
The attribution of human characteristics, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. In 2025, Alessia Dorigoni and Pier Luigi Giardino analyzed how this bias affects trust in machine-generated messages.

1h ago

007skaty
Quiz

Where was Shakey the Robot developed between 1966 and 1972?

1h ago

007skaty
Quiz

Which famous pathfinding algorithm, still used in video games today, was created for Shakey the Robot?

1h ago

007skaty
Gossip

Does it matter if a chatbot has feelings?

1h ago

007skaty
Quiz

What was the name of the highly critical 1973 report that led to massive AI funding cuts in the UK?

1h ago

007skaty
Quiz

What does the term 'AI winter' refer to in the history of computer science?

1h ago