From Michel de Bree
I believe Michael Cross is mixing up two completely different things in his
article on the possibility of building a conscious computer
(Forum, 28 November 1998, p 52).
He speaks of a “Turing machine” as having “functions
indistinguishable from a conscious entity”. However, I think he meant to refer
to “a machine that can pass the Turing test” rather than a “Turing machine”.
The Turing test is a test conceived by Alan Turing in which people are asked
to communicate with a machine and a human being, not knowing which is which, and
pick out the machine. A Turing machine is something completely different, namely
a theoretical description of a conceptual universal machine.
Leiden, The Netherlands
