Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
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From: markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder)
Subject: Re: Bag the Turing test (was: Penrose and Searle)
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References: <1994Dec8.000925.27355@oracorp.com> <3c7b1j$fkd@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 1994 20:16:22 GMT
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In article <3c7b1j$fkd@mp.cs.niu.edu>, Neil Rickert <rickert@cs.niu.edu> wrote:
>daryl@oracorp.com (Daryl McCullough) writes:
>>markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder) writes:
>>>>As for the time
>>>>limit, I think you can eliminate the time limit by saying that an AI
>>>>program fails the test if there *exists* a line of questioning (of
>>>>whatever length) that will convince the interrogator that the program
>>>>is not human.
>
>>>But this is not a test!
>
>I didn't respond when Mark originally argued that this is not a
>test.  But it seems to me that there is a tradition in many graduate
>departments to run a Ph.D. oral preliminary exam in just the type of
>open fashion that Daryl suggested.  

I don't see that this *is* what Daryl is talking about.  The oral exam
*is* a test; once it's over the faculty makes or does not make the 
recommendation that the candidate be granted the degree.  The test 
does not meet Daryl's criterion: if the candidate passes, the faculty 
cannot say that there exists no line of questioning that would expose
her ignorance... only that they didn't happen to find one.

>>             It may be an extremely difficult task to teach a robot to
>>play violin or ride a bicycle, but those accomplishments are (in my
>>opinion) without philosophical interest.
>
>You may be right, that these are without philosophical interest.  But
>if so, this is a serious mistake made by philosophers.  They cannot
>hope to understand the person unless they strive to understand the
>whole person.

I couldn't have said it better myself.
