Over seventy years ago, Alan Turing developed the simple but powerful idea that any solvable mathematical problem can in principle be solved with a ‘universal computing device’. The type of device he described in his 1936 paper became known to researchers as a ‘Turing machine’. Ever since we have been trying to create artificial intelligence by programming electronic machines. Most of the current research in the field of AI is indeed just an acceleration of that first universal Turing machine. Turing is also responsible for another fundamental idea that has shaped research in this area. The Turing test makes us ask: if we cannot distinguish whether we are holding a dialogue with a person or a machine, then does it really matter what is in front of us – a machine or a human – since we’re dealing with intelligence anyway?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines intelligence as ‘the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations’. Turing’s idea of using language as a tool for comparing machine and human intelligence, based on how well a machine can pretend to be human, is both simple and profound. Thanks to this idea, such wonderful things as voice assistants and online translators have come to life.
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The Two Dennises
Hannah Mortimer observes a close encounter of the same kind.
Heraclitus (c.500 BC)
Harry Keith lets flow a stream of ideas about permanence and change.
Does the Cosmos Have a Purpose?
Raymond Tallis argues intently against universal intention.
Is Driving Fossil-Fuelled Cars Immoral?
Rufus Duits asks when we can justify driving our carbon contributors.
Abelard & Carneades Yes & No
Frank Breslin says 'yes and no' to presenting both sides of an argument.
Frankl & Sartre in Search of Meaning
Georgia Arkell compares logotherapy and atheistic existentialism.
Luce Irigaray
Luce Irigaray, now ninety-two years old, was, among many other things, one of the most impactful feminists of the 1970s liberation movements - before she was marginalised, then ostracised, from the francophone intellectual sphere.
Significance
Ruben David Azevedo tells us why, in a limitless universe, we’re not insignificant.
The Present Is Not All There Is To Happiness
Rob Glacier says don’t just live in the now.
Philosophers Exploring The Good Life
Jim Mepham quests with philosophers to discover what makes a life good.