Testing the Turing Test
By: Peggy Nelson | Categories: Haw-Haw

Alan Turing’s Turing Test is an attempt to determine if the artificial could be intelligent. For example, a computer and a person are behind two screens (let’s call them Door #1 and Door #2). The MC (let’s call him “Monty Hall”) types questions for each contestant, and receives typed answers in return. If “Monty” cannot decide between the what and the who, then the computer wins the prize. However, the studio audience may choose instead to interact with the virtual pet in the Xbox.

But, as has been pointed out, we need not convince the pigeons that we’re a pigeon, if all we want is to fly. AI need not get an A’s in natural language in order to share intel with the in-crowd. So in the interests of détourning Turing, we offer the following Test. Simply answer the questions and we will determine whether you think. We already know you’re artificial.

Because between the steroids and the silicon and the Prozac and the prosthetics and the Apps and the internet and the pesticides and the petroglyphs and the memes and the synthgenes and the kittenball entanglements of text and 3G, we augment always and everywhere.

So how best to sort the Sneetches on the beaches? Our Test will tell. Ready? Let’s have the first question please!

Looking in the mirror, you:




Tell me about your mother, Leon.




To land a rover on Mars, which system should you use?






As Earth’s Cultural Ambassador, you decide to send the aliens:





Complete this sentence: "One small step for man . . ."




What would you do with 10,000 hours?





Vaal is hungry. You must:





What's your drink?





Your colleague requests that you open the pod bay doors. You reply:




The correct stance vis-a-vis the future is:







Which best describes our cultural moment?





You duck into a convenience store because:







* * *

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Peggy Nelson is Arts Editor at HiLobrow, covering art, art-makers, and the virtual life; she was also HiLobrow's first Artist in Residence. She is a new media artist whose work involves fractured narratives in film, augmented reality, Twitter, and even objects on occasion. Follow her on Twitter at @otolythe.

5 Comments to “Testing the Turing Test”

  1. Joshua Glenn says:

    Can’t believe I’m an automaton duck, but when I checked the answers I discovered that I was, indeed, wrong 67% of the time. Amazing job, Peggy.

  2. Peggy says:

    Any Cornellians out there? That’s Ruloff’s brain if you make it up to Vat status: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_H._Rulloff

  3. Josh H says:

    3 out of 12?
    Also I posit that the answer to everything is to start making out.
    …perhaps I am an automaton, programmed for make outs!

  4. K. R. Seward says:

    I thought wrong answers would be the right ones.

    After all in Making Mr. Right, Ann Magnuson falls for the robot John Malkovich. Only a real person would be flawed enough to be wrong. Robots are like sociopaths (only gnarlier–and hopefully, nicer): they say exactly what you want to hear. Oh, well, back to Triskelion.

  5. cmadden says:

    How do you think I feel at 16% and I am her godmother.

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