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Nov. 2nd, 2014 04:00 pmInterrogator: In the first line of your sonnet which reads “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,” would not “a spring day” do as well or better?
Witness: It wouldn’t scan.
Interrogator: How about “a winter’s day,” That would scan all right.
Witness: Yes, but nobody wants to be compared to a winter’s day.
Interrogator: Would you say Mr. Pickwick reminded you of Christmas?
Witness: In a way.
Interrogator: Yet Christmas is a winter’s day, and I do not think Mr. Pickwick would mind the comparison.
Witness: I don’t think you’re serious. By a winter’s day one means a typical winter’s day, rather than a special one like Christmas.
"—Turing, A.M. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59, 433-460.
An example of viva voce questioning to determine if a person actual understands a work of art, or is just parroting back memorized responses. Used as one example of an Imitation Game (Turing test).
Written in response to, “Not until a machine can write a sonnet or compose a concerto because of thoughts and emotions felt, and not by the chance fall of symbols, could we agree that machine equals brain-that is, not only write it but know that it had written it. No mechanism could feel (and not merely artificially signal, an easy contrivance) pleasure at its successes, grief when its valves fuse, be warmed by flattery, be made miserable by its mistakes, be charmed by sex, be angry or depressed when it cannot get what it wants.” (George Jefferson, “The Mind of Mechanical Man” Br Med J. Jun 25, 1949; 1(4616): 1105–1110)
In this essay, Turing ticks off the various ways that Jefferson is using white, British, Cambridge-educated straight men as the benchmark of intelligence.
I particularly like his use of one of Shakespeare’s “Fair Youth” Sonnets as an example
