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Article 6194 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: marky@caen.engin.umich.edu (Mark Anthony Young)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Transducers
Message-ID: <7N+-H5+@engin.umich.edu>
Date: 10 Jun 92 17:37:54 GMT
References: <1992Jun08.225734.32166@spss.com> <BILL.92Jun8150837@cortex.nsma.arizona.edu> <60795@aurs01.UUCP>
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor
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Before I get into the main part of this message, I'd just like to say
that I've been reading Wayne Throop's postings for a couple of weeks now, 
and this is the first time I have disagreed in any way with what he's
written.  Till now I've thought that he and I would be indistinguishable
in a Turing Test---if only I were articulate :-).

throop@aurs01.UUCP (Wayne Throop) writes:
>> bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs)
>> Message-ID: <BILL.92Jun8213911@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu>
>> A question such as, "Scrunch up the palm of your
>> hand, and describe the folds that you see," would cause it great
>> difficulty, unless it were connected to an impossibly detailed
>> simulation of the real world.
>
>How do you get to that conclusion?  If I were a control in
>a TT test, and received that question, I'd probably answer something
>like "I regard that question as cheating.  The whole idea of your
>being unable to see me is so you can't tell if I have hands or
>an RS232 port.  So I think I'll respectfully decline to look
>at my hands and answer this question.".   Or something like that.

You might say this, but you would be working to your own disadvantage.
As a player in the (Human-Machine) Immitation Game, your role (as a human)
is to convince the judge that you are a human.  Any question that can be
asked and answered through the interface is valid.  This is a good
question for the judge to ask, since it is their job to choose the human
correctly.  Your best strategy would be to answer the question to the
best of your ability.  The non-human player has to fake the best answer
it can.  Evasive answers, such as "That's cheating" or "I lost my hands
in an accident" are suspicious (the latter because the number of people
that have lost their hands in an accident is small compared to the number
of people who have hands).  Co-operation of the participants would
presumably be achieved by offering a cash prize to the players if they
win the game.  By refusing to answer the question, you lower your chances 
of winning some money.

...mark young


