info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) (11/07/84)
From: mclure@sri-unix Mind-Prober by Human Edge is a highly disturbing program. I have not fully made up my mind yet about it. Mind-Prober asks you 70 questions about a selected individual of your chosing. These questions are simply agreements or disagreements with one-word adjectives describing the person. For example: "Is the person talkative?" After all 70 questions are answered, it queries a very elaborate database and constructs a brief description of the inner workings of this individual's psyche. I have done this for a number of people, and it is TRUELY FRIGHTENING. I cannot stress how odd I felt while reading these descriptions. Yet, the program does not just regurgitate back to you what you put in, it adds comments, extrapolates, and makes value judgements on that person's character. I do not know the psychological basis of this program but it is probably heavily relying on the Jung-Myer-Briggs typology. This typology, originated by Carl Jung in his brilliant psychological types research in the early 20th century, hypothesizes certain definite categories that human personalities can inhabit. Myer-Briggs modified this typology and extended it significantly. Whether Mind-Prober uses this, I don't know, but I do know that this Jung typology is profound and has a basis in fact and not fantasy. Also, Mind-Prober was constructed by a bunch of psychology PhD's which makes me conclude that it probably *is* based on Jung or some descendent typology. I can see this software being used by managers to classify and categorize people just as in numerous science fiction movies. Do we want that? Stuart