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From: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (michael maxwell)
Newsgroups: net.ai,net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Searle, Turing, Symbols, Categories
Message-ID: <759@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 28-Oct-86 14:54:22 EST
Article-I.D.: bcsaic.759
Posted: Tue Oct 28 14:54:22 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Oct-86 22:45:52 EST
References: <158@mind.UUCP> <150@cwrudg.UUCP> <160@mind.UUCP> <2495@utai.UUCP> <744@bcsaic.UUCP> <10@mind.UUCP>
Reply-To: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (michael maxwell)
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 42
Xref: mnetor net.ai:1261 net.cog-eng:316

In article <10@mind.UUCP> harnad@mind.UUCP (Stevan Harnad) writes:
>
>michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (me) wrote:
>
>>	As an interesting thought experiment, suppose a Turing test were done
>>	with a robot made to look like a human, and a human being who didn't
>>	speak English-- both over a CCTV, say, so you couldn't touch them to
>>	see which one was soft, etc. What would the robot have to do in order
>>	to pass itself off as human?
>
>...We certainly have no problem in principle with
>foreign speakers (the remarkable linguist, polyglot and bible-translator
>Kenneth Pike has a "magic show" in which, after less than an hour of "turing"
>interactions with a speaker of any of the [shrinking] number of languages he
>doesn't yet know, they are babbling mutually intelligibly before your very
>eyes), although most of us may have some problems in practice with such a
>feat, at least, without practice.

Yes, you can do (I have done) such "magic shows" in which you begin to learn a
language using just gestures + what you pick up of the language as you go
along.  It helps to have some training in linguistics, particularly field
methods.  The Summer Institute of Linguistics (of which Pike is President
Emeritus) gives such classes.  After one semester you too can give a magic
show!

I guess what I had in mind for the revised Turing test was not using language
at all--maybe I should have eliminated the sound link (and writing).  What
in the way people behave (facial expressions, body language etc.) would cue
us to the idea the one is a human and the other a robot?  What if you showed
pictures to the examinees--perhaps beautiful scenes, and revolting ones?  This
is more a test for emotions than for mind (Mr. Spock would probably fail).
But I think that a lot of what we think of as human is tied up in this
nonverbal/ emotional level.

BTW, I doubt whether the number of languages Pike knows is shrinking because
of these monolingual demonstrations (aka "magic shows") he's doing.  After the
tenth language, you tend to forget what the second or third language was--
much less what you learned!
-- 
Mike Maxwell
Boeing Advanced Technology Center
	...uw-beaver!uw-june!bcsaic!michaelm