[extropy-chat] Twenty Questions Twenty Questions - Theneural-net on the Internet

[Adrian Tymes]

--- spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Recall the eliza experiment a couple years ago where
> someone rigged eliza to the internet teen chat
> group.
> He had a whole bunch of teens converse with eliza,
> never realizing it was software.  Many of those who
> did
> figure it out did so because the software would
> respond
> instantly, faster than a person can type.  That can
> be fixed.  That looks to me like machines have
> passed
> the Turing test.

There's a critical difference (which you acknowledge
as the next step, but I'd say is necessary for claims
of passing "the Turing test"): many of the teens
weren't even aware of the realistic possibility of
computers imitating humans.  (Sure, they'd seen it in
sci-fi, but actually conversing with one in real life?
That still blows the minds of many of the general
public - even many of those who kind of understand how
spam is generated.)

In the Turing test, on the other hand, the judge not
only knows that computers may try to imitate humans
(well enough to bother putting them through the Turing
test), but that one of the other conversants really is
a computer.

It makes for good stealth when the ones you're hiding
from aren't looking for you, either specifically or as
part of a class of things they are looking for.