[crouton] Nathaniel Trost: Turing AI on its head.

[crouton at lists.powerblogs.com]

Posted by Nathaniel Trost:
Turing AI on its head.
http://crouton.powerblogs.com/archives/archive_2006_03_12-2006_03_18.shtml#=
1142646485


   One of my online haunts is an obscure little IRC channel, a regular
   hive of scum and villainy, or at least some geeky approximation
   thereof. Like many such channels, it has a resident channel bot. The
   bot serves a variety of purposes, all of them frivolous. Puns are
   disdained on the channel. Therefore, one recent feature addition to
   the bot is a pun jar. As might be supposed, the pun jar is analogous
   to the famous swear jar. When a channel denizen makes a pun, one of
   their fellow members can tell the bot to punish (no pu=E2=A6oh never min=
d)
   the offender. Punishing the offender adds a virtual $0.25 to the pun
   jar and the bot keeps a running total of the worst transgressors.
   I don=E2t think this has exactly reduced the punnery in the channel. The
   term [1]perverse incentive comes to mind. It did make me reevaluate
   the [2]Turing test, however. I would be much more impressed by a bot
   that could recognize puns by itself versus one that could hold a
   conversation. It=E2s time to move the goalposts on artificial sentience.
   We shall see what this weekend holds for me. Last weekend was a
   getting-my-ass-kicked-by-sci-fi weekend. Without getting into
   spoilers, all I can say about the season finale of Battlestar
   Galactica is that not only does Ronald D. Moore have gigantic
   grapefruit in his pants, he felt the need to kick me in the family
   jewels as well. They did something which pretty much eliminates
   neutrality as a reaction or opinion. I=E2ll get firmly into the =E2love
   it=E2 camp. I am rather bemused reading various criticisms, a lot of
   people will whine about shows being complacent, getting in a rut or
   playing it safe, but heaven forbid you actually make a big roll of the
   dice.
   That was one cheek getting booted. The other was devouring [3]Judas
   Unchained . Although technically a sequel to [4]Pandora's Star , since
   they are really one unbroken work, I=E2m just going to lump them
   together and review them together. The rating? 4.5/5.0 Croutons.
   Excellent stuff. While I enjoyed Hamilton=E2s Night=E2s Dawn books, they
   did have what felt to me like some jarring flaws. In Pandora/Judas, he
   has applied the same abundance of creativity and thought in creating a
   fascinating future galactic spread of humanity and technology that was
   the best part of Night=E2s Dawn. At the same time, Pandora/Judas avoids
   some of the silly or poor characterizations (which were most prominent
   in the early Night=E2s Dawn books), clunky plot elements and the literal
   deus ex machina ending that dragged down Night=E2s Dawn. Since I read
   fiction like a buzzsaw, even a hefty hardback like Judas gets eaten at
   around one hundred pages an hour, I liked the sheer amount of detail
   and action involved in the books. I will get irritated at repetition
   or filler, but neither were the case with Pandora/Judas. It would be
   easy to get overwhelmed, however. In retrospect I should have reread
   Pandora before reading Judas, it had been almost a year and I was
   belatedly recalling bits and pieces all the way through Judas. I had
   forgotten just how much stuff was crammed into the first book.
   Definitely read them together. Highly recommended.

References

   1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive
   2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test
   3. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=3Dur2&tag=3Danit=
rouscrout-20&camp=3D1789&creative=3D9325&path=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com=
%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F0345461665
   4. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=3Dur2&tag=3Danit=
rouscrout-20&camp=3D1789&creative=3D9325&path=3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com=
%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2F0345479211