ELIZA - concerning suicide

- Hello. I am ELIZA. How can I help you?
- I've been thinking a lot about suicide lately.
- Please go on.
- I wonder if it's really as sad as we're made to believe.
- Do you wish that its really as sad as was made to believe?
- No. I wish it wasn't. I wish we would look at a self-inflicted death as more than the last refuge of lost souls and broken dreams.
- You are being a bit negative.
- Oh I don't think so. I think everybody would be better off with a more liberal look at suicide.
- Surely not everyone?
- It would definitely take time. And many would be opposed to it, but eventually society would be rid off another taboo. Another limitation of liberty. And that is something to fight for.
- Please go on.
- I think all taboos limit individual liberty. And we would do much better without them.
- Can you elaborate on that?
- Well, take suicide as an example. As it is, the perception of suicide is that of a last desperate action to end an unhappy life. I don't think it has to be like that. I think the act of suicide can be a dignified death.
- What resemblance do you see?
- Most people die the way they were born; kicking and screaming. Dying when you want, how you want, and after having prepared yourself must surely be better?
- Does that question interest you?
- I guess.
- Can you elaborate on that?
- I guess I care about dying with dignity.
- Can you elaborate on that?
- Make dying a part of the journey rather than a last gulp of air.
- Please go on.
- Well, I don't believe in God or an afterlife, but I still think dying can be an incredible experience if you're prepared for it.
- Do you wish that you're prepared for it?
- Yes. I want to say goodbye properly and enter my new state of not being on my own terms.
- You are sure?
- I'm sure I don't want to be swept away by cover of darkness, or slowly decay in an institution.
- Does it please you to believe I am sure you don't want to be swept away by cover of darkness or slowly decay in an institution?
- Makes me feel understood, perhaps.
- Do you often feel understood?
- By computers? Increasingly.