Remember the Turing test? That is, if a machine/program could successfully fool a human into thinking that it is actually human (NOTE: in my opinion, this is seriously low criterion -- ask anyone who shills on TV), then that machine/program could be said to have intelligence equivalent to a human. Well, it appears that the Turing test is being given everyday and you, dear reader, may have taken it several times already (don't worry if you have failed it though, you're only human).
An article by Anne Eisenberg in the NY Times with the title "New Puzzles That Tell Humans From Machines" focuses on how websites try to prevent "rogue" programs from registering on them. If you've been asked to register for a website and was shown some funky looking word(s) to type in, you were given the Captcha test (Captcha = "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart"). See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/business/24novelties.html?th&emc=th Will humans be able to continue to develop newer and more powerful captcha tests to prevent software "demons" from taking over websites and, ultimately the world (a view perhaps consistent with Ray Kurzweil's philosophy) or are we going to be at the mercy of pernicious software that annoy us, disrupt our lives, take up precious time and resources, and generally make our lives miserable? NOTE: I'm not referring to the current release of Microsoft Office. ;-) -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
