Joseph Weizenbaum, creator of the Rogerian psychoanalysis simulator Eliza, is dead at 85. His work in AI and simulations cannot be underestimated and you and I owe him a debt of gratitude for every time we feel as if we’re “talking” to our computers. He didn’t find the ghost in the machine, but he discovered our ability, for better or worse, to project our souls into our interfaces.