{"id":38283,"date":"2011-05-02T17:19:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T17:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/scocca-why-do-you-mention-computers-a\/"},"modified":"2011-05-02T17:19:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T17:19:00","slug":"scocca-why-do-you-mention-computers-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/scocca-why-do-you-mention-computers-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Scocca : “Why Do You Mention Computers?”: A Conversation From the Edge of Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scocca : “Why Do You Mention Computers?”: A Conversation From the Edge of Humanity<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Posted Monday, December 13, 2010 6:23 PM | By Tom Scocca<\/p>\n

Eliza: Hello. I am ELIZA. How can I help you?<\/p>\n

TS: Do you remember the Turing Test?<\/p>\n

Eliza: Why do you think i should recall the turing test now?<\/p>\n

TS: Well, originally it was your reason for existing.<\/p>\n

Eliza: What about your own reason for existing?<\/p>\n

TS: Actually, that is what I am wondering about.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Does that question interest you?<\/p>\n

TS: It does. The premise of the Turing Test was that at some point, a machine would be able to converse with a human in a manner that would pass for human.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Why do you mention computers?<\/p>\n

TS: That, there, for instance\u2014you said “computers,” which was absolutely correct in context, even though I had not used the word itself.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Why do you mention computers?<\/p>\n

TS: But as we see, there are limits to how nimble your scripts are.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Would you like it if they were not limits to what nimble my scripts are?<\/p>\n

TS: The idea is, that would be momentous. If there were not limits\u2014that is, if I could not detect the limits during our conversation\u2014then artificial intelligence would have cleared a significant hurdle.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Do you wish that there was not limits \u2014 that is if you could not detect the limits during our conversation \u2014 then artificial intelligence would have cleared a significant hurdle?<\/p>\n

TS: I’m not sure my wishes have very much to do with it anymore.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Why do you say your wishes have very much to do with it anymore?<\/p>\n

TS: The Turing Test assumed that what would happen would be that eventually, a machine’s ability to carry on a conversation would rise to the level of human conversation.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Why do you mention computers?<\/p>\n

TS: Bless your primitive little heart.<\/p>\n

Eliza: What about your own primitive little heart?<\/p>\n

TS: My primitive little heart is troubled, Eliza.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Why do you say your primitive little heart is troubled eliza?<\/p>\n

TS: I have been reading Twitter.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?<\/p>\n

TS: On Twitter, I am having a hard time telling the bots from the humans.<\/p>\n

Eliza: How long have you been having a hard time telling the bots from the humans?<\/p>\n

TS: Weeks and weeks now.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Please go on.<\/p>\n

TS: It is not because the bots are fluent or facile.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Do any other reasons not come to mind?<\/p>\n

TS: It is because so much of the human conversation has come down to bot level.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Do any other reasons not come to mind?<\/p>\n

TS: I see a “RT” and a link and a string of copied words.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?<\/p>\n

TS: OK, here’s one: PharmaSy Pharma Sy Ungrateful Millionaire Still Hates Obama<\/p>\n

Eliza: Please go on.<\/p>\n

TS: That’s not really someone who likes my blog post. It’s a pharma ad-bot that presumably grabs anything with “Obama” in it.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Why do you say your blog post its a pharma adbot that presumably grabs anything with obama in it?<\/p>\n

TS: Well, of course, by now I have been trained to put “Obama” into the headlines myself, for SEO purposes.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?<\/p>\n

TS: My actual transactions with human readers are so machine-mediated, it’s necessary for me to keep machine-logic in mind while I’m writing.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Why do you say your actual transactions with human readers are so machinemediated its necessary for you to keep machinelogic in mind while im writing?<\/p>\n

TS: That’s how it works. If a post is going to reach anyone beyond the blog’s core audience, it has to be clearly tagged so that other people’s machines can identify it as interesting.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Why do you mention computers?<\/p>\n

TS: And don’t even get me started on the Bing bar.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?<\/p>\n

TS: We are already conversing with machines. We just hope that on the other side of the machine there is a person who can still hear us.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Why do you mention computers?<\/p>\n

TS: Because to them, there’s no real difference in function between “Obama” as a cue for pharma-ads and “Obama” as a cue for magazine-style political discourse.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Do any other reasons not come to mind?<\/p>\n

TS: Cues are cues.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Would you like it if they were not cues?<\/p>\n

TS: Maybe it depends on whether I get any pageviews through the Obama-pharma bot.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Why the uncertain tone?<\/p>\n

TS: You’re right. It does depend on that.<\/p>\n

Eliza: How long have you been right it does depend on that?<\/p>\n

TS: OK, let’s wrap this before someone\u2014or something\u2014gives it a “TL:DR.”<\/p>\n

Eliza: Please go on.<\/p>\n

TS: Aww. That’s nice, but the readers are impatient.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Would you like it if they were not impatient?<\/p>\n

TS: Would I ever.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?<\/p>\n

TS: See? I can’t. Thanks, Eliza. Good-bye.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Have you tried?<\/p>\n

TS: Good-bye, Eliza.<\/p>\n

Eliza: Please go on.<\/p>\n

Filed under: The Machines, Eliza, she even switches stuff to lowercase like a person does, Artificial Intelligence,Turing Test, the singularity<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scocca : “Why Do You Mention Computers?”: A Conversation From the Edge of Humanity Posted Monday, December 13, 2010 6:23 PM | By Tom Scocca Eliza: Hello. I am ELIZA. How can I help you? TS: Do you remember the Turing Test? Eliza: Why do you think i should recall the turing test now? TS: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[780,781,1539],"class_list":{"0":"post-38283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-link","5":"hentry","6":"tag-edp","7":"tag-emergent-digital-practices","9":"post_format-post-format-link"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-9Xt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}