{"id":2271,"date":"2015-05-07T11:11:51","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T15:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/?p=2271"},"modified":"2015-05-29T17:06:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-29T21:06:57","slug":"in-support-of-behavioral-tests-of-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2015\/05\/07\/in-support-of-behavioral-tests-of-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"In support of behavioral tests of intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
\"\u2026“blockhead”<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u2026“blockhead” argument\u2026<\/span>
\n“Blockhead by Paul McCarthy @ Tate Modern” image from flickr user Matt Hobbs<\/a>. Used by permission<\/a>.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Alan Turing proposed what is the best known criterion for attributing intelligence, the capacity for thinking, to a computer. We call it the Turing Test<\/a>, and it involves comparing the computer’s verbal behavior to that of people. If the two are indistinguishable, the computer passes the test. This might be cause for attributing intelligence to the computer.<\/p>\n

Or not. The best argument against<\/em> a behavioral test of intelligence (like the Turing Test) is that maybe the exhibited behaviors were just memorized. This is Ned Block’s “blockhead” argument<\/a> in a nutshell. If the computer just had all its answers literally encoded in memory, then parroting those memorized answers is no sign of intelligence. And how are we to know from a behavioral test like the Turing Test that the computer isn’t<\/em> just such a “memorizing machine”?<\/p>\n

In my new(ish) paper, “There can be no Turing-Test\u2013passing memorizing machines<\/a>”, I address this argument directly. My conclusion can be found in the title of the article. By careful calculation of the information and communication capacity of space-time, I show that any memorizing machine could pass a Turing Test of no more than a few seconds, which is no Turing Test at all. Crucially, I make no assumptions beyond the brute laws of physics. (One distinction of the article is that it is one of the few philosophy articles in which a derivative is taken.)<\/p>\n

The article is published in the open access journal Philosophers’ Imprint<\/a><\/em>, and is available here<\/a> along with code to computer-verify the calculations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026“blockhead” argument\u2026 “Blockhead by Paul McCarthy @ Tate Modern” image from flickr user Matt Hobbs. Used by permission. Alan Turing proposed what is the best known criterion for attributing intelligence, the capacity for thinking, to a computer. We call it the Turing Test, and it involves comparing the computer’s verbal behavior to that of people. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13256,380,618],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alan-turing","category-computer-science","category-open-access"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5pLfN-AD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":321,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2009\/09\/13\/britain-apologizes-for-treatment-of-alan-turing\/","url_meta":{"origin":2271,"position":0},"title":"Britain apologizes for treatment of Alan Turing","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Sunday, September 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Image by Whimsical Chris via Flickr Prime Minister Gordon Brown has apologized on behalf of the British government for the appalling treatment of Alan Turing, who was obliged to undergo chemical castration for the crime of being gay. Prime Minister Brown's statement in the Telegraph follows an online petition drive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alan Turing"","block_context":{"text":"Alan Turing","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/computer-science\/alan-turing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Alan Turing","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2081\/2042538753_f102fe97df_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2209,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2014\/11\/30\/the-turing-moment\/","url_meta":{"origin":2271,"position":1},"title":"The Turing moment","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Sunday, November 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2026less histrionic\u2026 Ed Stoppard as Alan Turing in Codebreaker We seem to be at the \u201cTuring moment\u201d, what with Benedict Cumberbatch, erstwhile Sherlock Holmes, now starring as a Hollywood Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. The release culminates a series of Turing-related events over the last few years. The centennial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alan Turing"","block_context":{"text":"Alan Turing","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/computer-science\/alan-turing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1481,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2012\/06\/16\/talmud-and-the-turing-test\/","url_meta":{"origin":2271,"position":2},"title":"Talmud and the Turing Test","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Saturday, June 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"...the Golem... Image of the statue of the Golem of Prague at the entrance to the Jewish Quarter of Prague by flickr user D_P_R. Used by permission (CC-BY 2.0). Alan Turing, the patron saint of computer science, was born 100 years ago this week (June 23). I\u2019ll be attending the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alan Turing"","block_context":{"text":"Alan Turing","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/computer-science\/alan-turing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2132,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2014\/06\/10\/no-the-turing-test-has-not-been-passed\/","url_meta":{"origin":2271,"position":3},"title":"No, the Turing Test has not been passed.","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Tuesday, June 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2026that's not Turing's Test\u2026 \u201cTuring Test\u201d image from xkcd. Used by permission. There has been a flurry of interest in the Turing Test in the last few days, precipitated by a claim that (at last!) a program has passed the Test. The program in question is called \"Eugene Goostman\" and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alan Turing"","block_context":{"text":"Alan Turing","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/computer-science\/alan-turing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2218,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2015\/02\/18\/the-two-guildford-mathematicians\/","url_meta":{"origin":2271,"position":4},"title":"The two Guildford mathematicians","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Wednesday, February 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2026the huge ledger\u2026 Still from Codebreaker showing Turing's checkout of three Carroll books. The charming town of Guildford, 40 minutes southwest of London on South West Trains, is associated with two famous British logician-mathematicians. Alan Turing (on whom I seem to perseverate) spent time there after 1927, when his parents\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alan Turing"","block_context":{"text":"Alan Turing","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/computer-science\/alan-turing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2295,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2015\/08\/03\/becoming-tin-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":2271,"position":5},"title":"Becoming tin men","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Monday, August 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"From the 2015 introduction to the 1965 novel The Tin Men by Michael Frayn: \"I hadn't in those days heard of the Turing Test\u2014Alan Turing's proposal that a computer could be said to think if its conversational powers were shown to be indistinguishable from a human being's\u2014so I didn't realise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alan Turing"","block_context":{"text":"Alan Turing","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/category\/computer-science\/alan-turing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2271"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2281,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2271\/revisions\/2281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}