--Here's the Wiki paste-in:
Turing test
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Turing test is a proposal for a test of a machine's capability to
perform human-like conversation. Described by Alan Turing in the 1950
paper Computing machinery and intelligence, it proceeds as follows:
a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with two
other parties, one a human and the other a machine; if the judge
cannot reliably tell which is which, then the machine is said to pass
the test. It is assumed that both the human and the machine try to
appear human. In order to keep the test setting simple and universal
(to explicitly test the linguistic capability of the machine instead
of its ability to render words into audio), the conversation is
usually limited to a text-only channel such as a teletype machine as
Turing suggested or, more recently IRC or instant messaging.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Objections and replies
3 Discussion of relevance
4 Predictions and tests
5 Terminology
6 Variations of the Turing test
7 References
8 See also
9 External links
[edit]
History
The test was inspired by a party game known as the Imitation Game,
in which a man and a woman go into separate rooms, and guests try to
tell them apart by writing a series of questions and reading the
typewritten answers sent back. In this game, both the man and the
woman aim to convince the guests that they are the woman. Turing
proposed a test employing the imitation game as follows: We now ask
the question, 'What will happen when a machine takes the part of A in
this game?' Will the interrogator decide wrongly as often when the
game is played like this as he does when the game is played between a
man and a woman? These questions replace our original, 'Can machines
think?' (Turing 1950) Later in the paper he suggested
an equivalent alternate formulation involving a judge conversing
only with a computer and a man.
Turing originally proposed the test in order to replace the
emotionally charged and (for him) meaningless question Can machines
think? with a more well-defined one. The advantage of the new
question, he said, was that it drew a fairly sharp line between the
physical and intellectual capacities of a man. (Turing 1950)
[edit]
Objections and replies
Turing himself suggested several objections which could be made to
the test. Below are some of the objections and replies from the
article in which Turing first proposed the test.
Theological Objection: This states that thinking is a function of
man's immortal soul and therefore a machine could not think. Turing
replies by saying that he sees no reason why it would not be possible
for God to grant a computer a soul if He so wished.
Mathematical Objections: This objection uses mathematical theorems,
such as Gödel's incompleteness theorem, to show that there are limits
to what questions a computer system based on logic can answer. Turing
suggests that humans are too often wrong themselves and pleased at
the fallibility of a machine.
Mechanical Objections: A sufficiently fast machine with sufficiently
large memory could be programmed with a large enough number of human
questions and human responses to deliver a human answer to almost
every question, and a vague random answer to the few questions not in
its memory. This would simulate human response in a purely mechanical
way. Psychologists have observed that most humans have a limited
number of verbal responses.
Data Processing Objection: Machines process data bit by bit. Humans
process data holistically. In this view, even if a machine appears
human in every way, to treat it as human is to indulge in
anthropomorphic thinking.
Argument From Consciousness: This argument, suggested by Professor
Jefferson Lister states, not until a machine can write a sonnet or
compose a concerto because of thoughts and emotions felt, and not by
the chance fall of symbols, could we agree that machine equals
brain. Turing replies by saying that we have no way of knowing that
any individual other than ourselves experiences emotions, and that
therefore we should accept the test.
Lady Lovelace Objection: One of the most famous objections, it states
that computers are incapable of originality. This is largely because,
according to Ada Lovelace, machines are incapable of independent
learning. Turing contradicts this by arguing that Lady Lovelace's
assumption was affected by the context from which she wrote, and if
exposed to more contemporary scientific knowledge, it would become
evident that the brain's storage is quite similar to that of a
computer. Turing further replies that computers could still surprise
humans, in particular where the consequences of different facts are
not immediately recognizable.
Informality of Behaviour: This argument states that any system
governed by laws will be predictable and therefore not truly
intelligent. Turing
