10.05.2006
HAL 9000 Test
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On our home page you'll see the panel that protected the HAL9000. If you look around the site, you'll be sure to find the Hal test. If you listen, HAL will talk to you. Make sure the volume is on. As of yet, no computer can pass the Turing test.
The assumption in 1968 was that this would be accomplished by 2001, as well as the facile interpretation of natural languages, recognition of facial characteristics, and so forth. However, the vast number of variances that would need to be calculated and the imposition of multiple constraints assure that this level of AI is beyond our capabilities.
However, the degree of portability of devices in the movie - as futuristic a projection as HAL or going to Jupiter with an advanced ship featuring a novel kind of propulsion (ion) - has been met and even exceeded.
This element is as fantastical as any of the other speculations, but it has already come true. Surely, some of the others may come true as well, including...learning to use technology as an aid in the monitoring of cognitive state according to a definitive schema by age and other factors as a quick check, even a do it yourself activity, to say nothing of the neuroplastic benefits, neurogenesis, or mental reserve created.
