From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!mcsun!uknet!edcastle!aiai!jeff Wed Sep 16 21:22:32 EDT 1992
Article 6844 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Turing Test Myths
Message-ID: <7499@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 9 Sep 92 18:18:49 GMT
References: <93829@bu.edu> <BILL.92Aug17114642@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu> <1992Aug17.191457.8645@spss.com>
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In article <1992Aug17.191457.8645@spss.com> markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder) writes:
>In article <BILL.92Aug17114642@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu> bill@nsma.arizona.edu 
>(Bill Skaggs) writes:
>>   > > I believe that, given an hour of interrogation, I would have a
>>   > > better than 90% probability of distinguishing between a man and
>>   > > a woman.  [ . . . ]
>>
>>For a male imitating a female, I would begin by asking for an
>>explanation of the system of women's clothing sizes.  (Junior, Misses,
>>etc.)  Then I would ask for an explanation of "her" philosophy for
>>using makeup.  And so on.
>
>Would *you* be able to detect "wrong" answers to these questions?  
>If so, then you know enough about women to pass your own test.

This is not necessarily true.  Think, for example, of how much 
easier it is to have a reading knowledge of a programming language
than a writing knowledge.  

>Or perhaps you're thinking that a woman will administer this particular
>test?  Then my wife would probably fail.  She doesn't use much makeup,
>so she probably doesn't know enough about it to satisfy a female
>inquisitor.

That may be why he asked for a philosophy of using makeup rather
than something that more directly addressed knowledge about makeup.

Etc.


