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Letter: Letter

Published 1 September 2001

From David Rothwell

Duncan Graham-Rowe writes an entertaining report of his attempt to converse
with Hal. Perhaps he might like the 1977 novel The Adolescence of P-1
by Thomas J. Ryan, in which a computer program becomes “alive”. P-1’s response
to “How are you?” was, instead of Graham-Rowe’s 18-month-old daughter’s
delightful “More raisins Daddy”, “Fine. Glad to meet you.” Maybe Turing was
right all along?

Bracknell, Berkshire

Issue no. 2306 published 1 September 2001

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