roseembolism (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
roseembolism) wrote2009-07-25 01:13 pm
roseembolism) wrote2009-07-25 01:13 pm
Turing: Did he think he would fail his own test?
Here's an interesting paper on Turing and his famous Turing Test.
According to the authors' analysis of Turing's original paper, elements of the paper deal with ethics, and encourage scientists to take a broader perspective on intelligence. Turing actually uses computers in a very broad sense-including "biological" (i.e. human) and warns that failing what he called "the imitation game" may not actually prove something is not human, merely that it does not think or communicate like a human. In other words, it cannot "pass" for a "normal human". This concept takes on greater importance in the context of Turing's homosexuality, for which he was persecuted unto suicide. It has also been theorized that Turing was mildly autistic, which in turn can give greater context to Turning's hypothesis of intelligent machines that cannot imitate humans.
The real legacy of Turing's paper may be its encouragement to think in terms of other conceptions of intelligence, and that imitation isn't everything. For a person who died because he could not sufficiently imitate the mainstream, this is a chilling reminder of what may happen if we do have too limited a definition of "human".
According to the authors' analysis of Turing's original paper, elements of the paper deal with ethics, and encourage scientists to take a broader perspective on intelligence. Turing actually uses computers in a very broad sense-including "biological" (i.e. human) and warns that failing what he called "the imitation game" may not actually prove something is not human, merely that it does not think or communicate like a human. In other words, it cannot "pass" for a "normal human". This concept takes on greater importance in the context of Turing's homosexuality, for which he was persecuted unto suicide. It has also been theorized that Turing was mildly autistic, which in turn can give greater context to Turning's hypothesis of intelligent machines that cannot imitate humans.
The real legacy of Turing's paper may be its encouragement to think in terms of other conceptions of intelligence, and that imitation isn't everything. For a person who died because he could not sufficiently imitate the mainstream, this is a chilling reminder of what may happen if we do have too limited a definition of "human".
no subject
no subject
And yes, exactly what you said. In my time working in special education, I saw plenty of cases where the client would try to communicate their needs, but the authority would go ahead and do what they wanted, because communications wasn't good enough for them.
And the idea of different types of intelligence leading to communication gaps has implications not only for AI research but SETI as well. I've often thought that the interest in intelligent extraterrestrial really boils down to "Beings enough like us that we can talk to them".