Alan
Turing asked the question, "Can machines think?" The simple logic test he
developed is as follows:
A human interrogator can ask any question of two subjects, who are in other rooms, hidden from the interrogator's view. One test subject is another person, the other is a machine - the interrogator must decide which is human, and which is not. The answers are typewritten, so there are no clues from voice or appearance. Furthermore, the subjects don't have to tell the truth, so the computer can pretend to be human, and vice versa.
If the human interrogator can't tell the difference between the person and the machine, then the answer to the question "Can machines think?", has to be yes.
