The Turing Test, the Grice Test

Speranza

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From the Stanford Encyclopedia:


"In a seminal paper (Turing 1950), A.M. Turing proposed that the question, “Can machines think?” can be replaced by the question, “Is it theoretically possible for a finite state digital computer, provided with a large but finite table of instructions, or program, to provide responses to questions that would fool an unknowing interrogator into thinking it is a human being?”"

"Now, in deference to its author, this question is most often expressed as “Is it theoretically possible for a finite state digital computer (appropriately programmed) to pass the Turing Test?” (See Turing Test entry)"

"In arguing that this question is a legitimate replacement for the original (and speculating that its answer is “yes”),

Turing identifies

"thoughts"

with

_states_ of a system,

defined solely by their
roles in producing
further internal states *and*
verbal outputs, a view that has much in common with contemporary functionalist theories.

Indeed, Turing's work was explicitly invoked by many theorists during the beginning stages of 20th century functionalism, and was the avowed inspiration for a class of theories, the “machine state” theories most firmly associated with Hilary Putnam (1960, 1967) that had an important role in the early development of the doctrine."