Anyone here ever been to therapy?
And how does that make you feeeeel?
“I ASKED HOW it made you FEEL! People will DIE if you don’t ANSWER ME! We’re running out of time!”
If you think your “24” hours is like a rat race version of the high octane T.V. show, I suppose sitting around and feeling feels out loud for an hour can seem tantamount to singing kumbaya while your camp is burning down… and throwing fifty bucks into the flames after. Because your insurance is shitty. It’s just easier to numb the feels later instead, right?.
I suppose that’s a problem that’s been going on since the 60’s because that was when some dudes developed “Eliza” – a talk therapy computer-based program. People being placebo tested told Eliza their most intimate issues, had good results, and subsequently refused to believe it wasn’t a real human being when they heard they’d been Kutchered after with the news of “You got PWND!” (that’s computer-language for “punk’d” right?)
Over time, the good old face to face action has often been preferred – but in recent times, thats been shifting. Thus, DARPA developed a computerized software called “Ellie”(reeeally original, guys). Ellie reads and responds to human emotion in real time and even detects conversational rhythms. Tuned to look for anxiety and depression and PTSD, it’s a great option for veterans – and people seem to really like it. Just like they did Eliza.
Now – in the next-level stage of tech-therapy, you can do “the couch” from your couch.
The most recent development is an app called Talkspace- a text message based therapist. It’s not a real person… but it’s via text message. No micro-expresh-detectors or whatever. And the cost for this app? $100 a month. That’s not bad considering a regular in-person therapist once or twice a week is generally wallet rapery. And sure, it’s convenient inasmuch as you don’t hafta go anywhere or get stressed out about seeing a doc face to face if you’re either super busy or super agoraphobic.
I feel like this is one of those “almost-good” technologies.
Like it could use one more stage of evolution – mayhaps a combo of this therapy idea (live therapist on the other end) mixed with the Ellie program (where you’re both turned into an avatar for online sessions). It’d still be a live therapist on the other end. Instead of a computer programmed to answer based on body language and micro expressions or… “downward gaze” (which I didn’t know was a thing but now will put on my self-consciousley-self-edit list), a real person would be able to track those movements – maybe catch something the sim can’t.
In sum, not a terrible idea – but it could use some improvement.
Because the only thing worse than wondering if you’re crazy – is doing it on a couch
Eliza/Siri voice: “Sudden closed body language detected from talk show host…”