Turing test

[Dave2002]

It occurred to me quite a while back that I have no idea whether any of you "really" exist. I could be talking to a computer, or maybe some of you are real - but not quite what you seem. A few of you seem to be able to listen to so much music, and apparently be so knowledgeable about it that perhaps "you" really are a computer, or a consortium of "real" people.

There's also some evidence that all is not what it seems on another thread - http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...921#post343921

I sympathise with those of you who could write the same about me - though I have already indicated who I am - http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...602#post343602

Perhaps, however, I should choose this as my avatar - though that wouldn't be very modest.

[gurnemanz]

As I understand cyberspace, on here we are cyborgs. If you met me in person, I'd just be me.

[Dave2002]

As I understand cyberspace, on here we are cyborgs. If you met me in person, I'd just be me.

No, we could both "see" representations of what we think are real people in a real environment! Even if I see you "in reality" I don't know you are real. [though I'd probably think you were ...]

[Pabmusic]

Don't worry too much, though. Lacking absolute certainty about whether anyone else exists doesn't prevent you from making consistently good decisions. Even if you are a brain in a jar, it doesn't affect your own feelings in the world you experience and it doesn't affect your actions.

If I recall correctly, your concern is called solipsism. I reckon that Renee Descartes has a lot to answer for.

[Thropplenoggin]

Don't worry too much, though. Lacking absolute certainty about whether anyone else exists doesn't prevent you from making consistently good decisions. Even if you are a brain in a jar, it doesn't affect your own feelings in the world you experience and it doesn't affect your actions.

If I recall correctly, your concern is called solipsism. I reckon that Renee Descartes has a lot to answer for.

'After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the nonexistence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it -- "I refute it thus." Boswell: A Life

The question remains: who or what to kick?

[ardcarp]

I reckon that Renee Descartes has a lot to answer for.

...not to mention Schroedinger's Cat

[salymap]

I'm lost -I thought 'Turin' or Turing was something to do with Bletchley Park.

I think I'm real - at leastI was before I got a computer a mere 6 years ago. I went out, met friends, talked to real people.

ANYBODY THERE ?

[Thropplenoggin]

If a tree falls down in a forest and no one is around to hear it, will someone still start a thread about it on this forum?

[umslopogaas]

I assure everyone that I am as real a sixty-four year old male as any other. Despite my pseudonym I am not a ferocious Zulu warrior and virtuoso swinger of the battle axe; I just happened to be re-reading 'Alan Quatermain' on the evening when I decided to join in the fun, and couldnt resist adopting the hero's name.

[Serial_Apologist]

The door opens, therefore I am.

[Anna]

The door opens, therefore I am.

The door closes, therefore I am no longer in the room. Unless I am an elephant.
Actually I am either a) a hologram, or b) a figment of my fevered imagination.

[Dave2002]

The door opens, therefore I am.

Na...
It's just a computer game. I don't really exist for you, and you and the others don't really exist for me!

[teamsaint]

D2K+2

re your op, we had a computer like that, minus glowing purple bits, at my first job.
It was real. I think.
It had the ability to schedule routes for around 30 lorries each day, rather ineffectively.

[Dave2002]

The door opens, therefore I am.

Naaa..
You are playing a game with a computer (which may not itself exist either!),and I and the others are just artefacts within it.

I have the same view of all you good people.

Sorry - seems like a duplicate (almost) post - things went dead when I was posting.

[Anna]

Sorry - seems like a duplicate (almost) post - things went dead when I was posting.

That's when you begin to question the Androids .........