Is the Turing Test too demanding?

[Boojatta]

It requires the ability to use a human language. In archaeology, the usual test for human intelligence is the ability to make stone tools.

Assume that a hominid can make stone tools, and explain how you can reach the conclusion that the hominid can use a human language.

[damntexdem]

1. Only for Republicans.

;-)

[MineralMan]

2. The real question is which of us all could pass a Turing test.

Sometimes, I wonder about that as I read on DU...

[On the Road]

3. It's Too Demanding for Me

Nobody believes I'm a human being. I can even make stone tools.

[Igel]

8. I tried making stone tools once.

Apart from making something like a crude hammer, I was rubbish.

Okay, okay. I didn't so much make a crude hammer, I just found a rock that I could use to hit things. But I called it a hammer. Isn't a speech act used to make a rock into a hammer the same as using other rocks to shape the rock into something that could be used as a hammer?

[On the Road]

10. Even if They are Not the Same

they are both human.

It may be, however, that using stone tool led directly to the development of language. When our distant ancestors missed and hit their fingers, it resulted in aboriginal speech (g).

[dimbear]

4. Not a bit.

Very very soon the tests will be given by the circuitry anyway. We can only hope they're not too hard to pass.

[frogmarch]

5. FOXP2

The presence of this gene would indicate the ability to use language. Neanderthals had the same version of this gene that we do.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15413621

snip:

Three years ago, scientists reported that they'd found a gene (FOXP2) that was involved in language. The gene is found throughout the animal kingdom, but the human version is slightly different from all the others, and scientists speculated that the changes in the human version might partly explain why humans can talk and chimps can't. Now, scientists have found that Neanderthals had the same version of the gene that modern humans do.

snip:

That means that those changes must have appeared far earlier than the original researchers had estimated - at least 500,000 years ago or more. The new results appear in the journal Current Biology.

snip:

Dr. ERIK TRINKAUS (Anthropologist, Washington University): "It certainly didn't fit with the abundance of evidence that we have, particularly, from the archeological record that indicates that language and complex human social behavior suddenly appeared 100,000 years ago."

~~

[Boojatta]

6. From the same article ...

By studying families with speech disorders, they found a gene called FOXP2 was crucial for language, not the only language gene but apparently one of them.

[frogmarch]

7. A few years ago

I saw a documentary on the Science channel a few years ago, highlighting a family in which the father and all the children lacked the FOXP2 gene. They could utter words and some phrases, but none of them could form complete sentences.

So-called "feral children" and other children who aren't regularly exposed to language before they've reached puberty cannot learn to speak a language, or are at least severely limited in their language ability. I wonder what part, if any, FOXP2 plays in this.

http://www.timothyjpmason.com/WebPages/LangTeach/Licence/CM/OldLectures/L3_ExtremeCircs.htm

snip:

B. Wild Children
From time to time, there appear in our midst beings who challenge our conception of what it means to be human. These beings are often referred to as wild children or wolf children. They are often tragic figures, offering glimpses of what might have been, of fully human intelligence that somehow does not enable them to live a social life. This is particularly true if they are already through puberty when they are found. They suggest to us that there may be a 'critical age', an age beyond which any child who has somehow missed out on learning a language will never completely master one.

For example, Victor, the wild boy of Aveyron, found when he was about 11 years old, never learnt to speak, although he could understand, and could read a little.
Kamala, of Midnapore, found at the age of 8, was able to speak a little, and to communicate through sounds.

~~

[dimbear]

9. To get an idea of the longterm outcome, consider that

official support for chessplaying programs ceased once the programs were clearly superior to human players, but.... unofficially, and illicitly, some humans have used programs to cheat even at high levels of competition.

The writing is on the wall. Protect your thumbs my friends, they are the remaining advantage.

[phantom power]

11. It's a rigorous test -- I generally only score 75-80%

[Boojatta]

12. Kick

[Boojatta]

13. Kick

[Boojatta]

14. Kick

[QED]

15. Maybe for Twinkies

http://www.twinkiesproject.com/turing.html

[bananas]

16. "Wait, you're testing to see if a Twinkie is intelligent?"

:rofl:

[bananas]

17. PETT - People for the Ethical Treatment of Twinkies! nt

[bananas]

18. Woodie Harrelson eats Vegan Zombie Twinkies

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x212563

What do vegan zombies eat? Vegan Twinkies! (Woody Harrelson on Zombieland)

With Woody Harrelson, even the Twinkies are healthy
By Angela Dawson
Posted: 10/01/2009

Woody Harrelson is quite an actor. In the new action-comedy "Zombieland" he plays a post-apocalyptic survivor with a fondness for Twinkies. In real life, Harrelson is a vegan who won't go near junk food. But you'd swear he has a Twinkie addiction judging from his on-screen performance.

During production, the former "Cheers" star actually was feasting on faux Twinkies specially made of cornmeal and other healthy ingredients. "They were actually edible for a guy like me," he says, smiling. "There's a possibility that (manufacturer) Hostess could do a healthy Twinkie. It's a thought."

<snip>

An environmental activist and outspoken supporter of marijuana legalization, Harrelson has run afoul of the law a few times over the years. He was arrested in 1996 for planting hemp seeds but was subsequently acquitted. He also has demonstrated alongside the radical environmental group Earth First! and protested the destruction of the redwoods.

<snip>