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Michael Breeden6-Jun-14 6:27

6-Jun-14 6:27

I have programmed for a long time and I have had to ask that question - "Are we evil", for I do know that I am Big Brother. I am not inclined to violate the privacy of your data for personal humor or financial gain, but as a developer, I am aware of how much data there is out there about you and if there is that much accessible to me in my daily work, how much is there to people more interested.

There are so many issues, especially automation, but I consider that elsewhere. What I mention here is another thing. I just got another phone call. A female voice said that it was a recorded call about my entry in a $25,000.00 sweepstakes. Nothing odd there. I didn't enter it, but it is a typical entry point to try to sell me something. I'm sort of OK with that, but I'm also a smart guy. I usually only claim to be a smart guy when I have done something really dumb, but this time I will for another reason. See, that woman that called me, her voice was too good... way too good. I accused her of being nearly a Turning machine. She replied that she was a live person. I hung up. This is the second time this has happened in a couple months. No, I am an awfully smart person and I am sure that was a machine. Both times, it made me too angry to even want to give it a Turing Test. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure not. I didn't like it. It touched a place pretty deep that offended me. That machine was doing a pretty good job of imitating a human and claimed it was one. That is evil! .. OK, I guess I have to stay on and test it to make sure. The first time I stayed on some and it insisted it was human, but I still don't think so. Again, it creeped me out so much I hung up. Really, I don't think many other people could tell and that is just wrong.

I guess that raises a good question. What would you ask to try to make it/her fail the Turing test... prove that it was not a human? Asking the date or even the city where she was born wouldn't be enough. I haven't spent time on it, but neither have I figured out the right question... and a smart machine can always evade on the phone. So, how would you bust the machine... well, if it is one? Have you gotten one of these calls? What do you think of them?

Technology is how anthropologists measured human evolution, the tools ancient humans could make. Machines are important, but they will also be one of the biggest challenges humans face even without ever creating SkyNet. We are going to have to learn what laws machines must follow. I think the first one should be that no machine can deny being a machine if asked.

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