Beyond the Turing Test
Feb 5, 2025Is there anything computers can't do—or at least won't be able to do at some future time? They have already gotten pretty powerful: so far we've developed cars that drive themselves, protein-folding software that discovers new medicines, and some great tools to help students cheat on their papers.
Comments (6)
beckyricee
Thursday, January 9, 2025 -- 12:16 AM
Alan Turing's concept of theAlan Turing's concept of the - Turing machine showed the fundamental - limits of computation, proving some problems are unsolvable by any machine. His work remains a cornerstone of modern computer science.
Daniel
Thursday, January 16, 2025 -- 4:17 PM
Waedahminnut. Are you sayingWaedahminnut. Are you saying there's a cornerstone of computer science which shows how or at least where it's not a science? Is showing how a calculator can't do psychoanalysis a cornerstone of mathematics too? As to the issue of what a machine can't do, it seems the only certain candidate for such a sweeping claim is that it can't not not be a machine. Take the above post to which I now respond. If it was purely machine-generated, the second person singular pronoun used to address its author, while intended to refer to another person, that is, another "I" minus any unshared or individual characteristics, would in reality correspond only to a thought in the mind of the speaker (or in this case writer) who employs it. Because belief in the correctness of correspondence with the intentional content would then be false, if causing this belief were itself intentional it would amount to being a lie. But in order to lie, the truth must be known to the liar, which can not be the case here, since there is no subject which can hold something to be true. But then let's say that a machine-generated appearance absent the object which appears is so convincing that it becomes impossible to doubt the existence of this object in any way but a hypothetical manner. Would it matter that a speaker's intentional content could only refer to the thought of that content? And if knowing a thing to be false while allowing it to be believed true is understood as lying, while believing something false to be true is a kind of foolery, can the great promise of so-called "Artificial Intelligence", that is, the appearance of intelligence in unintelligent objects, be little more than a comprehensive training program of how society can be conveniently divided between liars and fools?
praz
Friday, January 10, 2025 -- 2:47 PM
How do I watch this podcast?How do I watch this podcast?
Devon
Monday, January 13, 2025 -- 7:54 AM
It will air on KALW 91.7 FMIt will air on KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco on Sunday Feb-9 at 11 am pacific and then be available to listen to here.
Daniel
Thursday, January 23, 2025 -- 2:22 PM
Because the Turing Test forBecause the Turing Test for machine intelligence is based (by my reading) on the indemonstrable assumption of its categorical distinction from human intelligence, it constitutes a test for whether thinking can be found anywhere in the pool of unproblematically existing machine intelligence. Apparently, thinking occurs as a single species of the wider genus of intelligence, which latter can predicate objects described as mechanized in addition to non-mechanized human beings.
If in equal apparent measures of intelligence-levels occurring in both sections (the human and the machine), no difference is detectable (or if one exceeds the other while each lack perceptible defects), then thinking occurs in the machine-section. Contained in the operative assumption of a radical human/machine distinction is that no limit can be placed on where machine thinking can be observed regardless of how closely it approximates the appearance of human thinking or exceeds it in apparent intelligence level. The question of consciousness is by this extraneous to the question of thought-occurrences, since only the appearance of a thinking object is asserted, not any claim of its existence. Wherever perceptible intelligence-level approximates to an undifferentiated degree characteristically human intelligence (or exceeds it), the mechanized object is said to be thinking without having to commit to a claim about what's doing it.
So does the categorical distinction between humans and machines, the general concept of intelligence, and the particular reference to thinking known only to occur in the human variety prior to computational models, indicate a direct opposition to later computational models of cognitive processes which seek to confirm by replication a cognitive model already worked out? Can it be plausibly said that because Turing insisted on a non-human status for machines, (e.g. discrete contra continuous systems), that his model could not tolerate the assertion of artificial intelligence, but only real or non-artificial thinking?
Ivango
Thursday, March 6, 2025 -- 6:31 AM
Alan Turing’s groundbreakingAlan Turing’s groundbreaking work explored the boundaries of what machines can compute, but even he might appreciate the elegance of simpler systems—like converting volts to amps. Just as Turing’s universal machine laid the foundation for modern computing, electrical principles like voltage (the "push" behind electrons) and amperage (the flow rate) form the bedrock of energy systems.
Turing asked: Can machines think? Similarly, we might ask: Can a simple formula—like Ohm’s Law (I = V/R)—capture the complexity of real-world circuits? While volts and amps are measurable, predictable units, their interaction mirrors Turing’s fascination with how basic rules generate infinite possibilities.
Yet, just as Turing recognized limits to computational reason, electrical systems have constraints. Not every voltage can be safely converted to amps without considering resistance, heat, or context. It’s a reminder that even "universal" principles (in math or energy) require practical wisdom.
Explore the interplay of volts and amps in action with this handy converter: a1solarstore.com/volts-to-amps/ .
Like Turing’s legacy, it’s a tool that bridges theory and practice—one calculation at a time.