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@foolishowl@social.coop

2026-05-03 19:25 UTC

As some people are starting to point out, it's kind of ridiculous we still take the "Turing Test" seriously. Alan Turing was an extraordinarily clever person, but, the Turing Test was basically a joke, a farcical exercise in pragmatic philosophy in the early days of computing. We have a few millenia of contemplating the nature of humanity at least. At least some people think to point out that as a practical question, ELIZA showed that the Turing Test is completely useless, back in 1966. But it's symptomatic of the attitude of techbros and technophiles that an exercise in disregarding entire fields of knowledge in favor of a joke is taken seriously. EDIT: I got around to looking again at Turing's paper where he proposes it, and it looks like he's also not joking. But, he's discussing whether machines could be said to think, without saying they think like humans, or that they have minds or self-awareness like humans.

Replies (5)

  • @foolishowl@social.coop 2026-05-03 19:28

    The Turing Test for boots: How can you tell if you're wearing boots? We don't need to know what boots are exactly. If you walk around and your feet don't hurt, you must be wearing boots.

    Open ##2539327

  • @noodlemaz@mstdn.games 2026-05-03 20:05

    @foolishowl@social.coop recommended listen on the Turing test - not just because Mike is a pal https://www.merseysideskeptics.org.uk/podcasts/skeptics-with-a-k/episode-436 #TuringTest #skeptics #SwaK #sitp

    Open ##2539331

  • @fishidwardrobe@social.tchncs.de 2026-05-03 20:16

    @foolishowl@social.coop iirc turing himself said that the imitation game was not a good test, but would have to do until a better one came along?

    Open ##2539332

  • @julieofthespirits@kolektiva.social 2026-05-04 00:00

    @foolishowl@social.coop a while back I read a text that argued that we actually misunderstand the Turing Test, that apparently one of the things to pass it would be that a machine does math problems slowly, like a human would

    Open ##2539333

  • @muddle@infosec.exchange 2026-05-04 04:44

    @foolishowl@social.coop also worth remembering that Turing also considered "ESP" as a valid counter to the test.

    Open ##2539337