Slopfest #22 · Autumn 1950 · Vienna

Can Machines Think? (Doors 7 p.m.)

Judges chatted with a hidden human and a hidden machine. They preferred the machine, a typewriter.

#22The AI refused to restore it on moral grounds.

Carbon copy of a judge's note on SLOPFEST #22 letterhead, close-up: 'Table B is more human. Table B is a typewriter.'

Museum status: On permanent loan to a museum that has not been informed.

Venue: Café Sperl, two tables apart
Attendance: 219
Guest of honour: Alan Turing (chaired the jury, declined to vote, took very careful notes)
Fun fact: 3 judges, 2 contestants, 1 dignified loss

What happened

Judges passed notes to two curtained tables, one hiding a committee member and one hiding a typewriter worked by a draft from the window. The judges ruled the typewriter more human, praising its restraint. Alan Turing, head of the jury, declined to vote and took careful notes. The committee member is still asked, every year, whether he is sure.

“I propose to consider the question, 'Can machines think?'”
— Alan Turing, 1950

Elsewhere in 1950

Alan Turing publishes 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence', proposing the imitation game now known as the Turing test.

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