Alan Turing

The Turing Test

If computers can be constructed to think as intelligently as humans, then it is possible that our thinking operates mechanically and that we are part of the physical, causal world. It remains a practical matter about what stuff can realise the algorithms. Silicone chips can do so; biological brains too – but maybe they do much more in human thinking? After all, machine intelligence seems contradictory, for we contrast mechanical with intelligent behaviour. To deal with this, Alan Turing devised a discriminatory test – The Turing Test.

An interrogator, receiving only printed answers, interrogates two hidden individuals, one intelligent human, one machine. If he cannot tell which is the machine, then the machine is intelligent. Of course, the interrogator needs intelligence himself. Asking simple arithmetical questions alone, for example, would lead to no difference being identified between persons and pocket calculators with suitable interfaces. Further, the machines need to be intelligently programmed to avoid tell-tale signs of their non-human nature: so, they can, for example, delay answers to complex questions, print out hesitant "er"s and even make mistakes.

The Enigma Machine

Even if machines pass Turing’s test (some have, but were their interrogators sufficiently discerning?) they might be merely simulating or modelling. After all, computers can model weather changes, but there’s no danger of computers raining. In contrast, simulating steps of reasoning to right answers, with right answers given – as also, sometimes, acting sex scenes in films – amounts to the real thing. So, are machines that pass Turing’s test akin to weather modelling or to realistic sex acting?

The Turing Test hides seeming irrelevancies, such as whether the "thinker" is metallic or flesh; but it hides much more. Our thinking engages a fleshy life – riding bicycles, coaxing lovers who have headaches, using chairs as coat-hangers. Simply knowing that something or other, about bicycles, coat-hangers and lovers, captures neither our thoughts’ richness concerning these items, nor our knowing how to use them, nor how to judge what is relevant to say about them.

Computation, however, is symbol manipulation – symbols that we interpret as meaningful. Can we even grasp how sheer computational complexity could give rise to interpreting symbols – to understanding their meaning?

-Peter Cave,  http://www.philosophersmag.com/article.php?id=730

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George W. Bush, Texas Air National Guard Portrait.
1968-1973

Photo Credit: George Bush Presidential Library

Holding prisoners in secret violates the Geneva Convention

 

Senior US army generals say the United States may have secretly held dozens of detainees in Iraq.

They also accuse the CIA of not providing information on the subject.

The generals, who were testifying before the Senate Armed Services committee, oversaw a key report into abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

These were prisoners held secretly and not notified to the International Committee of the Red Cross, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

One general said there could have been up to 100 such prisoners, another said the number was more likely to be a couple of dozen.

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - A man who tried to shoot seven puppies was shot himself when one of the dogs put its paw on the revolver's trigger.

Jerry Allen Bradford, 37, was charged with felony animal cruelty. He was being treated at a hospital for a gunshot wound to his wrist. Bradford said he decided to shoot the three-month-old shepherd-mix dogs in the head because he couldn't find them a home.

On Monday, Bradford was holding two puppies - one in his arms and another in his left hand - when the dog in his hand wiggled and put its paw on the trigger of the .38-calibre revolver. The gun then discharged, the sheriff's report said.

Deputies found three of the puppies in a shallow grave outside Bradford's home.

Germany's finance minister is calling for fat people to be more heavily taxed to relieve expanding health service costs.

Hans Eichel said urgent measures were needed to close the 41 billion euro budgetary gap, and is now looking to increased insurance costs for overweight Germans as well as extreme sport fans.

"Everyone is partly responsible for their health. This begins with what we eat and ends with whether we take part in risky sports or not."

President of the German Chamber of Doctors, Dr Guenther Jonitz, suggested a 'Big-Mac tax' be introduced on foods that contain sugar, animal fats and salt as well as on alcohol and nicotine products.

From anjuliet