The Fourth Outrage of Man (Is the Turing-Test Still up to Date?)

Abstract

This paper addresses psychologists-psychoanalysts in particular-and engineers, as well as others with an interest in technology and a proclivity for critical thinking. We hope to grasp the attention of persons who are skeptical or even uneasy with regard to modern electronic machines. It is important to realize that the mathematician and information theoretician Alan Turing was the first to prompt mankind to consider a comparison between intelligent machines and humans from a scientific perspective. His test proposal piqued the interest of engineers as well as philosophers, and has caused many of them to question their concepts to this day. This treatise aims to show that Turing, a scientist rightfully (albeit belatedly) highly esteemed, formulated a fascinating research question which can be legitimately answered only if one deals intensively and seriously with the disciplines of psychoanalysis and computer engineering. The project SiMA (Simulation of Mental apparatus & Applications) at the Vienna University of Technology assembled a team of scientists who have come to a concise conclusion and formulated an answer to this question. The answer, however, is not what one might expect.