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From: afzal@cui.unige.ch (Afzal Ballim)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Turing Test: opinions on an idea
Summary: number of English conversations
Message-ID: <5577@cui.unige.ch>
Date: 16 May 91 07:59:28 GMT
References: <1991May13.133711.102@athena.mit.edu> <2200@seti.inria.fr>
Organization: University of Geneva, Switzerland
Lines: 28


In article <2200@seti.inria.fr> ziane@nuri.inria.fr writes
>In article <1991May13.133711.102@athena.mit.edu> mlevin@jade.tufts.edu writes:
>> ...
>> hyperdimensional memory, or something). They then make an enormous
>> 'game-tree' of all possible conversations in English (taking 
>> into account randomizing elements, repeat questions,
>> etc.), and make an idiot box that simply accepts inputs from an
>> interrogator, and, by direct table look-up, spits out answers, which
>> are good enough to pass the Turing Test. 
>> 
>> Mike Levin
>
>It is reasonable to assume that such a table can be constructed ?
>What about questions that refer to the discussion itself ?
>How can you know statically a result that can only be computed
>dynamically ?

To which the answer is a definite no.  Given that the number of *sentences*
alone in English is transfinite, it seems improbable at best to imagine that
the number of conversations could be finite.


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