[comp.ai.philosophy] IF IT DOES NOT PAS TT IT IS NOT INTELLIGENT????

ISSSSM@NUSVM.BITNET (Stephen Smoliar) (06/20/91)

In article <1991Jun19.111622.5491@tygra.Michigan.COM> dave@tygra.Michigan.COM
(David Conrad) writes:
>
>The Turing Test does not test for intelligence.  At a literal level it tests
>for a specific ability, the ability to mimic human answers to questions,
>which we may hope requires at least some kind of 'intelligence'.
>
>But more importantly, it points out that physical form is not really an
>indicator of intelligence.

This is a very important aspect of Turing's paper.  Turing takes us right up to
the brink of Cartesian dualism;  and, as far as I am concerned, he throws his
lot right in there with Descartes.  Not only is physical form not an indicator
of intelligence, but the feasibility arguments which form the heart of his
paper basically argue that having ANY SORT of physical form is not NECESSARY
for intelligence.  In other words the mathematical machinery which Turing
musters ultimately supports the argument for the separation of mind and body.

The early decades of artificial intelligence were probably eager to embrace
this separation and understandably so, since it represented perhaps the highest
level of the "divide-and-conquer" approach to solving a difficult problem.  It
is always dangerous to throw a forward pass to history, but I would not be
surprised if the last decade becomes remembered as the one in which the
possibility of rejecting dualism passed from philosophers sitting in
comfortable armchairs to scientists sitting behind terminals and building
robots.  We may credit Turing for having the first "vision" of artificial
intelligence;  but we may have to confront the possibility that his dualist
stance pointed our first steps into the field in the wrong direction.

===============================================================================

Stephen W. Smoliar
Institute of Systems Science
National University of Singapore
Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Kent Ridge
SINGAPORE 0511

BITNET:  ISSSSM@NUSVM

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