{"id":2295,"date":"2015-08-03T15:42:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T19:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/?p=2295"},"modified":"2015-08-03T15:42:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T19:42:24","slug":"becoming-tin-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2015\/08\/03\/becoming-tin-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Becoming tin men"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the 2015 introduction to the 1965 novel The Tin Men<\/a><\/em> by Michael Frayn:<\/p>\n

“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 that what I was suggesting was a kind of converse of it: a demotion of human beings to the status of machines if their intellectual performance was indistinguishable from a computer’s, and they become tin men in their turn. The William Morris Institute is about to be visited by the Queen for the opening of a new wing, and I realise with hindsight that I’ve used a similar idea quite often since: the grand event that goes wrong, and deposits the protagonists into the humiliating gulf that so often in life opens between intention and achievement. My characters at the Institute could have written a story programme for me and saved me a lot of work. I’ve become a bit of a tin man myself.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 that what I was suggesting […]<\/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_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alan-turing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5pLfN-B1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2271,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2015\/05\/07\/in-support-of-behavioral-tests-of-intelligence\/","url_meta":{"origin":2295,"position":0},"title":"In support of behavioral tests of intelligence","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Thursday, May 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2026\u201cblockhead\u201d 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\u2019s verbal\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":2295,"position":1},"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":321,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2009\/09\/13\/britain-apologizes-for-treatment-of-alan-turing\/","url_meta":{"origin":2295,"position":2},"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":2295,"position":3},"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":2132,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2014\/06\/10\/no-the-turing-test-has-not-been-passed\/","url_meta":{"origin":2295,"position":4},"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":1610,"url":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/2013\/01\/13\/aaron-swartzs-legacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2295,"position":5},"title":"Aaron Swartz’s legacy","author":"Stuart Shieber","date":"Sunday, January 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Government zealotry in prosecuting brilliant people is a repeating theme. It gave rise to one of the great intellectual tragedies of the 20th century, the death of Alan Turing after his appalling treatment by the British government. Sadly, we have just been presented with another case. Aaron Swartz committed suicide\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":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295","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=2295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2297,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295\/revisions\/2297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pamphlet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}