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[Turing Machines and Natural Language]
Theology
Heads in the
Mathematics
Consciousness
Various
Disabilities
This argument takes the form 'Not until a machine can do X, can it
be said to be intelligent', where X is one of 'be kind, have a sense
of humor, fall in love, enjoy strawberries, make mistakes, etc.
Turing responds that none of these argument have any support,
and all seem to be grounded in mere induction. In certain cases
(like 'enjoying strawberries'), the objection is really a version of the
argument from consciousness. The 'make mistakes' disability is of
particular interest. Why should a machine be punished because it
might be better at Math than a human?
Lady Lovelace
Continuity of the
Nervous System
Informality of
Behavior
This argument claims that we do not know of a set of rules that will
govern all human behavior, but in order to create an intelligent
machine, you must create just such a set of rules. Turing's
response is to note the difference between knowing about such a
set of rules and there actually being such rules. There may be such
rules, even if they are outside of the realm of current
understanding.
Again, it is worth noting that this objection is part of what inspired
the neural network modelers to seek an alternate way of modeling
intelligence.
ESP
Which of the objections do you find the strongest? The weakest? Are Turing's responses
satisfactory?
Alan Turing is easily one of the most fascinating people in the history of Computer
Science. In addition to developing the Turing machine and proposing the Turing test, he
was largely responsible for breaking the Nazi's code during WWII. In 1954, he
committed suicide after being convicted of committing homosexual acts and sentenced
to not only lose his military clearance, but also to undergo a course of estrogen
injections. There is some controversy over his death - Turing's mother always
contended that his death was not suicide, but rather an accidental overdose due to poor
laboratory techniques. And there is some evidence that she might have been right.
Click here to learn more about Alan Turing.
There have been a number of different programs that attempt to pass the Turing test.
Take a moment to try some of these out, and see if you can determine if the
respondent is a human or a computer.
Copyright: 2002
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[Turing Machines and Natural Language]