Dan Brown; Rev. Dodgson; Babbage; Turing

[Monte Davis]

The Turing test (as he knew perfectly well) cuts both ways: my only evidence
that all of *you* are intelligent -- indeed, that you exist -- is this
ongoing low-bandwidth conversation, which you are able to carry on in
non-stereotyped ways... well, most of you.
 
That said, I don't think CS is yet up to an unrestricted T test,
non-time-limited conversation with freedom to wander into any subject. The
problem isn't so much the interactive part as the real-world knowledge. Cyc
has a way to go before it can bitch in adequate detail about how the Bears
let it down last night. 
 
> There is considerable doubt that if the Test were satisfied, people would
indeed regard it as the achievement of true artificial intelligence.  After
all, it was once thought that if machines could play good chess, that would
be "intelligence"; today they do play good chess and it's regarded as a
pretty cool technical achievement, but not the real thing.
 
Rilly. People can be expected to keep moving the goalposts as far as
necessary to preserve their self-esteem. Note how I started doing it above
:-)
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