Path: utzoo!censor!geac!jtsv16!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!usc!ucla-cs!uci-ics!zardoz!tgate!ka3ovk!drilex!axiom!linus!mbunix!bwk
From: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Congratulations! You passed the Turing test
Summary: Humorless computers.
Keywords: Empathy
Message-ID: <58049@linus.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jun 89 15:51:46 GMT
References: <3567@lindy.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Hysterics Associates, Lake Placid, NY
Lines: 24

In article <3567@lindy.Stanford.EDU> GA.CJJ@forsythe.stanford.edu
(Clifford Johnson) writes:

 > I was once compelled to take a computer personality test, in
 > which yes/no answers were forced (no don't know allowed) to
 > questions including "There is life after death,"  "I am
 > important," and much more personal questions too.  The computer
 > print-out was taken seriously by a court, because the computer
 > reported that its conslusions were "valid" (even though I had
 > answered questions I simply could not answer by tossing a coin).
  
 > One of the computer's conclusions was that I had no sense of
 > humor, which I still find amusing.

I love it.  Deliciously self-referential.  Perhaps the computer
was projecting its own personalty onto you!  :-)

By the way, one of the more amusing, entertaining, and informative
computer programs to map one's personality is "The Mind Mirror"
by Electronic Arts.  It's a repackaging of some of Timothy Leary's
early work, building on the personality theories of Sullivan and Jung.
This one is definitely not humorless.

--Barry Kort