I was curious about the film you were talking about, "Mind in the Machine", and Googled it, coming across several things including its origin and a simple statement by an Australian journalist (quoted below) of Turing's idea of the test one would apply to measure success in reproducing intelligence.
I read the statement as saying if you're able to imitate something by some other means (say behaviors of people by computers), in a way that an observer doesn't notice the discrepancy, you've made the real thing. I expect that's not quite accurate, and the current thinking has evolved. Can anyone say where the concept is headed? Phil http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/allen/story.htm "The theoretical basis of artificial intelligence goes back to the British mathematician, Alan Turing. In 1950, he proposed a test by which he claimed we could determine whether or not a machine could think. The Turing test, as it has become known, is quite simple. If a computer can perform in such a way that an expert cannot distinguish its performance from that of a human who has a certain cognitive ability - say the ability to do subtraction - then the computer has the same ability as the human. If we could design programs which simulate human cognition in such a way as to pass the Turing test, then those programs would no longer be models of the mind, they would literally be minds, in the same sense that the human mind is a mind. " "Turing was probably being deliberately provocative in proposing this test. In 1950 the idea that a machine could beat a human in any skill that required intelligence seemed complete fancy. Even so, the Turing test became a challenge that would motivate the field of AI research for decades. " Phil Henshaw ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 680 Ft. Washington Ave NY NY 10040 tel: 212-795-4844 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] explorations: www.synapse9.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
