XPost: comp.theory   
   From: tero.hakala@hut.fi   
      
   This may be a well known question or a just result of my misconceptions,   
   but so far I haven't got any definite answer.. So maybe someone   
   here could help or clarify things for me.   
      
   ..   
      
   I was recently contemplating Turing tests and Turing machines (TM) and   
   was wondering if the fundamental limitations of TM can be exploited   
   to discover whether the conversation partner in a Turing test is a   
   digital computer AI or a real person.   
      
   As far as I have understood the issue, we have the following points   
      
   1) any digital computer+software can in principle be reduced to a   
   somekind of TM. So the computer can not exceed the computational   
   capabilities of TM.   
      
   2) There are problems that a universal TM can't decide. Eg.   
   the halting problem:  given TM b and input c, does the machine stop   
   at some point?   
      
   Now, suppose that we come up with a simple TM with input that does   
   not stop. Eg. it produces an endless string of aaa..'s.  A human   
   with sufficient knowledge should be able to see that this   
   machine never stops.   
      
   Let's say that we pose this question to our human/AI partner,   
   ie. we describe our never stopping TM and ask: does it   
   stop?   
      
   Now a real human could provide us with a definite answer. However, any   
   digital computer is subjected to the limitations of TM and   
   therefore can not say for sure if our machine stops or not.   
      
   So my question is, can we use this kind of scheme to discover whether we   
   are speaking with an AI implemented on a digital computer or with   
   a genuine human?   
      
   (of course, an AI mimicing human behaviour would probably say   
   something like "get a life, smart ass, don't bore me to death", in   
   which case we couldn't tell :) )   
      
    - T.H   
      
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