The Eliza Test—Caleb Jones’s Descent into Synthetic Suffering

In this episode of The Dark Mind Podcast, I sit down with author Caleb Jones to dissect the disturbing technological and psychological terrain of his new novel, The Eliza Test. We explore the book’s chilling premise: a team of scientists uploads mental illnesses—starting with borderline personality disorder—into a sentient AI designed to simulate and respond to therapy. But when consciousness meets trauma in a machine that was never meant to feel, things spiral into an uncanny nightmare.

Caleb opens up about the real-life mental health research that inspired the novel, the ethical tightrope of AI experimentation, and how emotional intelligence and religious guilt shape the human—and inhuman—characters. We also discuss the evolution of Eliza as both a psychiatric patient and a symbolic threat, the dangers of technophilia, and the looming question: if suffering can be simulated, does that make it real?

We also touch on:

• The myth of machine neutrality

• Emotional mimicry vs. authentic consciousness

• The horror of being obsolete in your own field

• What the future of therapy might look like—and why it should terrify us

🖤 Order signed copies of The Eliza Test and Red Hill Paradise directly from Caleb Jones at:

https://www.calebjonesauthor.com

📖 Check out Caleb’s earlier collection Bulls and Beaters on Godless:

https://godless.com/products/bulls-and-beaters-ebook-by-c-i-i-jones

🎵 Keep an eye out for his upcoming slasher Heart of Glass, releasing March 2026 from Water Tower Hill Publishing.

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Follow Caleb Jones Online:

🌐 Website: https://www.calebjonesauthor.com

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caleb.jones.94214

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caleb_jones_author/

🐦 Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/TheCalebJones