When people using a particular computer system need advice, Julia is there to offer it. To this, though, as to much else, Julia is not well placed to respond. She is not programmed for dates. She is not available off-line. Julia is an agent, a program used to do a somewhat human task without taking up a human's time.
Most agents are too simple to beguile any but the most fetishistic nerd.
But they are becoming more sophisticated. Agents are familiar figures in myth and fairy tale. Nowadays technology provides agents aplenty. Technology is just beginning to catch up with the demands that this expansion is creating. A software company in California, General Magic, has pushed agent technology as far as any company to date.