The ultimate computer-based instructional system is one in which the student could input free-form questions and statements which would be analyzed by the system and understood in the sense that the system would then compose and display appropriate replies. We are some distance from that goal at the present.-Atkinson and Wilson, Computer-Assisted Instruction, 1969
Do you think they had any idea that things would turn out the way they have? We've basically answered this dream, but not by making the computer intelligent - instead, we've harnessed the computer's power to connect us to other people. That's all we've done, which is on one hand far simpler, and on the other hand far more advanced, than we ever thought things would be.
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