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Article 5626 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: richieb@bony1.bony.com (Richard Bielak)
Subject: Turing test and language
Message-ID: <1992May12.205205.14441@bony1.bony.com>
Keywords: turing test language acquisition new yorker
Organization: multi-cellular
Date: Tue, 12 May 92 20:52:05 GMT
Lines: 35

In the April 13th and April 20th issue of "The New Yorker" magazine
there is a two part article called "Silent CHildhood". It talks about
a girl, who was kept isolated from all humans, except her father, from
birth until she was about 13. She did not start learning language
until then.

The article discusses at length (after all this is _the_ "New Yorker")
this case, and others of so called "wild" children, from the
perspective of linguists.

The interesting thing is that the girl never really acquired language.
She learned words, but syntax was beyond her - for example, she never
learned how to make negatives.

I thought that if she had been used in a Turing test - playing the
role of computer - she would have failed miserably. The tester would
have declared her _not_ intelligent.

Yet, according to her caretakers, she _was_ intelligent.  She was
eerily good at non-verbal communications and was excellent in spacial
reasoning.

The implication is that the Turing test does not prove or disprove the
intelligence of the entity tested.


...richie



-- 
* Richie Bielak   (212)-815-3072   | "Your brain is a liquid-cooled parallel  *
* Internet:       richieb@bony.com | super-computer". He pointed to his nose, *
* Bang {uupsi,uunet}!bony1!richieb | "This is the fan."                       *
*    - Strictly my opinions -      |                     - David Chudnovsky - *


