[extropy-chat] The reverse Turing Test

[Alex Ramonsky]

This seems only one step away from 'front loaders' -persons who use 
their brain in a similar manner to google, remembering and regurgitating 
endless facts, figures and quotes on a subject but not actually 
understanding any of it. When a person tries to discuss the subject, or 
sometimes even just to converse, more facts and figures are parrotted 
out in tones that imply they're just not smart enough to understand. A 
lot of the time this seems to be what passes for 'knowledge'  in western 
cultures. Such characters do not seem to possess a sense of humor that 
we are aware of, so that could be one way to test. -But surely a reverse 
Turing test is a Gnirut?
Best,
AR
*********

Jef Allbright wrote:

>I recently recognized the existence of a relatively new phenomenon
>which, as far as I can tell, lacks a good descriptive name.  Maybe the
>extropy list can coin one.
>
>Most of us are familiar with the Turing Test, describing the situation
>where a human is in text-only communication with another entity, and
>the human tries to determine whether the other entity is a human,
>versus a computer pretending to have human understanding.
>
>The situation I've come to recognize is almost the reverse, where a
>human is in text-only communication with another entity, and the human
>tries to determine whether the other entity really understands the
>topic being discussed, versus a human only pretending to understand by
>using a computer (Google, Wikipedia, etc.).
>
>In such a case, the entity always claims to understand the topic, but
>appears to quote heavily and literally from sources available on the
>web.  When the human rephrases concepts in non-standard ways as a test
>of understanding, the entity typically responds by initiating a new
>conversational thread based on some alternative text findable on the
>web, like a strangely updated parody of Weizenbaum's ELIZA.
>
>I've seen this reverse Turing phenomenon often enough to think it
>could use a name.
>
>The Googling Test?
>The Web-Touring test?
>
>Suggestions?
>
>- Jef
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