[tantalor]

People can have strong emotional/sentimental connections with anything. It doesn't make them delusional, even in the clinical sense. For example, a diary.

But I take your point that people at the time may have misunderstood the program, possibly believing it was actually sentient. That's a mistake belief, not a delusion.

[kristopolous]

He does point that out in a part I omitted. I wish the work was online so I could just link you but please, don't take my selective quoting as a faithful representation, it probably isn't, I'm just some internet rando.

Go get your hands on a copy, you can probably find one for under $7 on eBay