This Technology Review article, “A Turing Test for Computer Game Bots”, demonstrates the vast gulf which exists between computer algorithm and human behavior. The premise of the AI attempt: Can a computer fool expert gamers into believing it’s one of them? That was the question posed at the second annual … Continue reading
In Introduction to Metamathematics, S.C. Kleene begins his chapter on Turing machines with the following informal characterization [1]: Suppose that a person is to compute the value of a function for a given set of arguments by following preassigned effective instructions. In performing the computation he will use a finite … Continue reading
A 2006 paper attempting to criticize some of Rosen’s arguments, entitled “In Defense of Mechanism” by A.J. Wells [1], was recently brought to my attention. The paper makes a lengthy series of erroneous arguments based on misinterpretations of Rosen’s arguments. Wells begins with a list of statements drawn from Rosen’s … Continue reading
Update 10/26: Some interesting discussions regarding this award are occurring on the FOM list. From wolframscience.com: Wolfram’s 2,3 Turing Machine Is Universal! October 24, 2007–Wolfram Research and Stephen Wolfram today announced that 20-year-old Alex Smith of Birmingham, UK has won the US $25,000 Wolfram 2,3 Turing Machine Research Prize. In … Continue reading
Dominique Chu and Wen Kin Ho iterate their previous exercises in misunderstanding and misconstruing of Rosen’s work with their latest paper, “Computational Realizations of Living Systems“, in the Fall 2007 issue of the MIT journal Artificial Life [1]. The abstract: Robert Rosen’s central theorem states that organisms are fundamentally different from machines, mainly because they are ‘‘closed with … Continue reading
As reported in the Economist: As he told “The next 10 years”, a conference organised by Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England, Dr Harel has been working on a computer model of C. elegans. He hopes this will reveal exactly how pluripotent stem cells—those capable of becoming any sort of mature … Continue reading
