Jeff Shrager writes travel-style close readings of landmark programs — each guide treats one famous piece of historic source code the way a good guidebook treats a city, starting with a map, then touring the major regions, then flagging the details a casual visitor would miss. The repository currently covers three programs: the 1963 Logic Theorist, ELIZA, and SHRDLU, each presented in a standardized format that assumes no familiarity with the original language or hardware and ends with a practical primer for reading the code yourself.
- Shrager openly states the guides were created with AI assistance and cross-checked, but likely contain errors
- A "Ground rules" section requires that behavioral claims be checkable against the quoted source, provenance of each source file be stated up front, and modern analogies be explicitly labeled as analogies rather than implied as lineage
- Contributions are welcomed, with corrections for factual errors and misread code especially encouraged
- Shrager openly states the guides were created with AI assistance and cross-checked, but likely contain errors
- A "Ground rules" section requires that behavioral claims be checkable against the quoted source, provenance of each source file be stated up front, and modern analogies be explicitly labeled as analogies rather than implied as lineage
- Contributions are welcomed, with corrections for factual errors and misread code especially encouraged
Researchers discovered long-lost computer code and used it to resurrect the early chatbot ELIZA from MIT. Named after Eliza Doolittle from 'Pygmalion,' ELIZA was developed in the 1960s by MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum. It was designed to emulate a psychotherapist in conversation and used a unique programming language called MAD-SLIP. Rediscovered in 2021, the original code was brought back to life after 60 years, demonstrating the chatbot's functionality and highlighting the historical significance of early artificial intelligence.
