Tag: Turing test

The problems with philosophical zombies

In any online conversation about consciousness, sooner or later someone is going to bring up philosophical zombies as an argument for consciousness being non-physical, or at least some portion of it.  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy introduces the p-zombie concept as follows: Zombies in philosophy are imaginary creatures designed to illuminate problems about consciousness and its relation … Continue reading The problems with philosophical zombies →

Emotional versus intellectual attributions of consciousness

Click through for full sized version and the red button caption. via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. This SMBC reminds me of a concept that I've been debating on ways to express, but a brief comment here seems like the opportunity to do so.  We've had a lot of discussions about exactly when we might start to … Continue reading Emotional versus intellectual attributions of consciousness →

What does the Turing Test really mean?

The Turing Test is in the news this week, first with a wave of hype about a historical accomplishment, then with a secondary wave of skeptical scrutiny. The Turing Test was originally contemplated by Alan Turing in a 1950 paper.  Turing envisaged it as an alternative to trying to determine if a machine could think. … Continue reading What does the Turing Test really mean? →

Artificial intelligence is what we can do that computers can’t…yet

I think I've mentioned before that I listen to a number of different podcasts.  One of them is Writing Excuses, a podcast about writing science fiction.  One of the recent episodes featured Nancy Fulda to discuss writing about AI realistically.  In the discussion, she made an observation that I thought was insightful.  What we call … Continue reading Artificial intelligence is what we can do that computers can’t…yet →