"Eh, there are probably good enough guides and tutorials online."

"Yeah, I think programming's one of the easiest things to pick up using only the internet."

"Probably. I think I might learn more if I actually have something to do with the language, though."

"Like what?"

"Dunno, it just sounds like the kind of thing that's easier to learn doing than, like, studying."

"Fair enough. I think some people make calculators? Or really simple chatbots."

"A calculator sounds like a good milestone. A chatbot sounds... more complicated."

"A simple chatbot. Like Eliza."

"I have no idea who Eliza is."

"Eliza's a chatbot that parrots your own poorly re-grammared statements back at you with therapist-speak appended."

"Therapist speak?"

"Yeah, like 'and how do you feel about insert sentence here' or 'is it important to you that insert sentence here' or whatever."

"Oh. Yeah that's easier."

"Much."

"Eliza sounds a bit obnoxious, though."

"Yeah, not a very good conversationalist."

"Might pass a very simple version of a Turing test though."

"Sure, if a dumb person's administering it."

"Could be a kid thinking it's a shrink."

"Yeah, turns out the basic Turing test is easy to pass because humans come in 'really bad conversationalist'."

"Yup, sometimes they do. I'm harder to fool, though."

"And the bot is trying to impersonate a specific human, not just any human."

"Yeah. It definitely can impersonate a generic human perfectly."

"Mm-hm."