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From: petersja@debussy.cs.colostate.edu (james peterson)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Turing Test: opinions on an idea
Message-ID: <14926@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>
Date: 17 May 91 15:43:36 GMT
References: <1991May15.003627.23521@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1991May15.055331.10631@cs.ubc.ca> <53693@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
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Organization: Colorado State Computer Science Department
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In article <53693@nigel.ee.udel.edu> lintz@cis.udel.edu (Brian Lintz) writes:
>In article <1991May15.055331.10631@cs.ubc.ca> yking@cs.ubc.ca (Yossarian Yggy King) writes:
>
>>WRT the Turing test, it seems like a very naive way to assess intelligence.
>>To draw an analogy with software engineering, the TT is equivalent to
>>running a program for a while, trying a whole bunch of different inputs,
>>and hoping that you manage to detect all the bugs.
>

> [stuff deleted]
>were actually a computer, I would probably think that it
>was intelligent. The Turing Test is even more stringent;
>you know beforehand that the person may be human or a computer,
>so you can gear your questions toward it. Remember, you can
>ask it anything; tell it jokes to see if it understands the 
>humor, ask it to do something creative, etc. If I couldn't
>tell if the machine was a machine or a human, in all fairness,
>I would have to assume it was intelligent.
>



I once thought the Turing Test was a bogus measure of intelligence.  I
have come to appreciate, however, just how difficult it would be to
pass.  Like Bill Rappaport, I believe that the TT is an index of intelligence
because it is really a test of the ability to manipulate natural language.
If you consider the abilities a computer would have to possess in order
give "reasonable" responses to various questions, you will come to
appreciate just how difficult the TT would be to pass.  Searle 
notwithstanding, if I came across a computer that could convince me
it was a normal human after, say, a half hour of "conversing" with it,
I would have to admit it *was* intelligent.  I don't beleive, however,
that any machine has even come the slightest distance towards this, and
I have serious doubts any formal automata will ever.



-- 
james lee peterson				petersja@CS.ColoState.edu
dept. of computer science                       
colorado state university		"Some ignorance is invincible."
ft. collins, colorado  (voice:303/491-7137; fax:303/491-2293)