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Philosophy and ComputersThe following appeared in Volume 98, Number 2 (Spring, 1999) of the APA Newsletters
Newsletter on Philosophy and Computers
From the Chair
Y2K: Computerquakes and Turing's Prophecy
James Moor
Dartmouth College
Jim.Moor@Dartmouth.edu
The year 2000 is near and has special significance for philosophy and computing. The Y2K problem, in which some computer programs relying on two-digit year dates regard the year 2000 as coming prior to other years in this century, has philosophical significance in that it illustrates in a very real way how implicit assumptions built into computer decision-making can have disturbing, possibly catastrophic, consequences. How information is represented in computers does matter. Philosophers who have much to say about language, representation, and ethics have an opportunity to contribute to a practical computing issue that goes far beyond the Y2K problem. As our society becomes increasingly dependent upon complex programs on highly networked computers that control more and more of our environment, we will become increasingly exposed to computerquakes. When implicit assumptions within these powerful programs no longer hold, we will all feel the impact.
Another interesting issue for philosophy and computing in the year 2000 is the examination of Turing’s prophecy. Recall that Alan Turing predicted in 1950 that in the imitation game (Turing Test) in about fifty years "an average interrogator will not have more than a 70 percent chance of making the right identification after five minutes of questioning". How close will computers come to fulfilling Turing’s prophecy?
Hugh Loebner has offered a prize of $100,000 for any computer that can pass a full Turing test. A Turing contest is held each year for the Loebner Prize. Computers haven’t come close to passing a full Turing test yet, but each year the program that is ranked the most human receives a $2000 consolation prize. Next year’s contest (Loebner Prize 2000) will be held at Dartmouth College on January 28, 2000. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~phil/events/LoebnerPrize2000.html. In conjunction with the Loebner Prize 2000 contest a conference will be held at Dartmouth on January 28-30, 2000, entitled "The Future of the Turing Test: The Next 50 Years". The purpose of the conference is to evaluate the merits and problems of the Turing Test philosophically and scientifically and to consider its usefulness and possible modification for the future. Information about the conference and paper submission requirements can be found at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~phil/events/TuringTestConference.html.
Fortunately, there is at least one problem in philosophy and computing that will be fully resolved in the year 2000. Did those people who recently purchased lime green Macintosh computers actually purchase lime grue Macintosh computers? Time will tell.
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