cw (12/01/82)
The Turing Test is a test for the existence of intelligence in an unknown device. Briefly summarized, it attaches you, via teletypes or another disguising communication medium, to two purported intelligences. One is known to be human; the other is the candidate under test. You may hold any conversation with the two devices. If, at the end, you can distinguish the human from the candidate intelligence, the candidate intelligence is deemed to have failed; it is not, in fact, human intelligent. Of course, you must run this test several times because you have a 50% chance just by guessing. The reference is to Alan Turing. Can A Machine Think? Reprinted in James R. Newman, The World of Mathematics, Simon and Schuster, 1956. Originally in the journal Mind in 1950. Reprinted many other places as well. This paper is essential reading for anyone who even wants to participate in a discussion of thought, much less of thought and computers. Charles