A personal hero of mine....

Joseph Weizenbaum, Famed Programmer, Is Dead at 85

Joseph Weizenbaum, whose famed conversational computer program, Eliza, foreshadowed the potential of artificial intelligence, but who grew skeptical about the potential for technology to improve the human condition, died on March 5 in Gröben, Germany. He was 85.

In 1976, he sketched out a humanist critique of computer technology in his book “Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation.” The book did not argue against the possibility of artificial intelligence but rather was a passionate criticism of systems that substituted automated decision-making for the human mind. In the book, he argued that computing served as a conservative force in society by propping up bureaucracies as well as by redefining the world in a reductionist sense, by restricting the potential of human relationships.

His book is one everyone who has ever used a computer should read. I first found it as a recommendation from the old Byte Magazine in the late 70's when I first starting fooling around with my original Apple II; and it remains in my all-time top 10 reading list along with Catch-22, Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintainance, The Book (Alan Watts), etc. While a bit long-winded, Weizenbaum's thesis was how very easy it is to "let the machines do the work" while we turn into idiots (seems he wasn't too far off the mark); and it always motivated me to understand what computers were all about and how they do what they do - it's why almost everyone I know calls me when they have a computer problem.

Whatever we have gained from all this technology (and you can make a great argument that it has really been very little), we stand to lose just as much by surrendering a great deal of our humanity in the process. Pay attention......