From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!csd.unb.ca!morgan.ucs.mun.ca!nstn.ns.ca!aunro!ukma!wupost!think.com!paperboy.osf.org!hsdndev!yale!cs.yale.edu!mcdermott-drew Thu Feb 20 15:20:46 EST 1992
Article 3732 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: mcdermott-drew@CS.YALE.EDU (Drew McDermott)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Humongous table-lookup misapprehensions
Message-ID: <1992Feb14.150342.21640@cs.yale.edu>
Date: 14 Feb 92 15:03:42 GMT
References: <1992Feb12.002312.19459@ida.liu.se> <1992Feb12.172855.19148@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> <1992Feb14.015835.22216@ida.liu.se>
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  In article <1992Feb14.015835.22216@ida.liu.se> c89ponga@odalix.ida.liu.se (Pontus Gagge) writes:
  >bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs) writes:
  >
  >>In article <1992Feb12.002312.19459@ida.liu.se> 
  >>c89ponga@odalix.ida.liu.se (Pontus Gagge) writes:

  >>>Is everybody happy that a DFA exists which passes a Turing Test, and
  >>>does so in a completely uninteresting manner? Is the Turing Test still
  >>>a good criterion for intelligence?
  >>>
  >
  >>  I'm not happy.

I'm not happy either.  In one breath you say a "DFA exists"; in the
next breath, the story about how it comes to exist makes it obvious
that it never really could exist:

  >An infinitely dedicated creator is given the task to create the table
  >for all conversations lasting less than a century. In order to avoid
  >certain practical problems we give her a turbo-charged longevity
  >drug, and put her in a timewarp, where she can happily hack away for 
  >the requisite >>10E100 years. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, :-)
  >she emerges, hands us the table, which proceeds to pass the Turing Test.

I'm no fan of the Turing Test, but if a machine could pass it, no one
would for a moment entertain the hypothesis that such a creator had
actually visited such a timewarp, etc., etc.  So whatever power it had
as a criterion it still has after hearing this fantasy.

                                             -- Drew McDermott


