Alan Mathison Turing was born on 23 June 1912 in London. He is famously known for the Imitation Game and the Turing test. Although Turing never labelled himself as a philosopher, when he published his 1950 paper, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” he ended up giving a fresh perspective on the traditional mind-body problem. This work is not only one of the most frequently cited philosophical texts, but it is also a revolutionary one. In this essay, I will only focus on the Imitation Game section of “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”.
Turing began his work with the following statement: I propose to consider the question, “Can machines think?”. He moves on to say that before delving into the problem, we must define the meaning of the terms “machine” and “think.” If we treat meaning as just reflecting normal use, it becomes too dangerous, because in such a case, we define words entirely by common usage, which reduces the entire problem to a Gallup poll. However, the question ‘Can machines think?’ is a very philosophical question that would not be answered by defining ‘machine’ and ‘think’ in the ordinary sense. Therefore, Turing rejects this route and reframes the problem by using his Imitation Game.
Let us first understand the Imitation Game. It is played with three people,
- A man (A)
- A woman (B)
- An interrogator (C), who could be either sex.
The interrogator is in a separate room and cannot see A and B. The object of the game for the interrogator is to determine which of the other two is the man and which is the woman. The interrogator is allowed to ask written questions to A and B, and they must respond via writing.
Turing, then, proposes to replace the man (A) with a machine, while the woman (B) is still human. The interrogator’s task will remain the same- to make an identification and determination.
Turing concludes this section of “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” by asking: Will the interrogator decide wrongly as often when the game is played like this as he does when the game is played between a man and a woman? These questions replace the original one- “Can machines think?”.
P.S. This post will be followed by additional posts on the other sections of “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.”
Sources
Computing Machinery and Intelligence by A. M. Turing (1950)
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