'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except the server running NT 4.0 in the study downstairs. Creature? Perhaps...

Since Alan Turing first helped the idea of Artificial Intelligence storm onto the mainstream science scene, people have questioned whether it is possible for man to create a new intelligence from pieces of plastic and metal. Why not? The uninformed of us might ask. I ask too. I am even convinced that intelligence already exists within the cold silicon world of computers today. And if you question this, I again ask, why not? There are many who stand behind the great shadow of Mr. Turing and will go to the grave believing that the Turing Test is The Way to test whether a computer has intelligence or not. With no disrespect intended to such a great man as Alan Turing, I totally disagree.

It is the idea of everyone, including the great Mr. Clark that computers must think like humans in order to be sentient. This stands to reason. The only sentient life form that we know of is human. But I disagree. There are many animals and even simple insects that show signs of being sentient in different ways. An author who has a definite understanding of this concept is Orson Scott Card, whose book and series that deal with the life of one Andrew Wiggan will be reviewed in issue two of this page. It is, in fact, my opinion that computers do actually think. And are somewhat sentient already. They just think in a different way. And every time you turn on a computer you have given birth to a new life form. And every time you switch it off... well, you work it out.

Well... due to time restraints I'm going to have to sign off for now, but here resides a few morsels to ponder upon. Don't worry, this page will get stronger with age. Hope you enjoy the show!

The Turing test was an idea that was first introduced by Alan Turing (would you believe!). He had a crazy notion that there could be a fail-safe test administered that could prove whether a computer had artificial intelligence or not. He stated that there must be specific parameters that must be met before the test could be administered, and these are they:

The actual test would consist of the tester typing or saying questions, rhymes, or mysterious phrases to the two parties 'behind the wall' - the computer and the other human. The tester must determine by the end of the test which 'person' is the computer. If he/she succeeds, then the computer fails. If, on the other hand, the tester can't decide, then the computer wins!! Yeayyy!

Of course... the problem with this is that a human might get a little pride stuck in his/her throat at the fact that he/she can't decide, which is which, and guess. So then we have a super intelligent computer brain being beaten hands down by a moron because some other moron 'can't let computers take over'!

Another problem is that the computer could be having a bad day and it could slip up two or three times. And while the tester is condemning the computer for being just that - a computer, the human is wiping his brow and would have slipped up too given another chance. So then, how many times should we test in order to get accurate results? The answer my friends is none!!!

This book was written at the same time as the film, of the same name, directed by Stanley Kubrick. Written by Arthur C. Clark. Stanley and Arthur worked on the screenplay at the same time so that release of book and film could coincide. The film and the book are very similar in plot and execution of plot. Being thus, the book is actually fairly short at a mere 200 pages or so. But the content is beautiful and profound and deserves a place amongst classics of our modern world.

The book begins three million years before our time, and ends in the year 2001 (thirty years in the future from the time the book was published in 1968). It is a voyage of discovery by the human race trying to reach out to those last frontiers, this one being space. It is about mans first contact with an alien culture that has transcended the boundaries of body and mind. It is about technology and how this is perhaps the evolutionary path towards a future of spiritual oneness with the universe. And although the ending is somewhat strange in concept and design, it outlines these ides in a harmony that only Arthur C. Clark could achieve. The man is a genius. For example, if you look at technology since 1968, although we haven't quite reached the breakthrough points that Arthur imagined at the time, his ideas are inherent in all of today's computer and space technological advances.

I won't spend too much time explaining the working of the book because modern publications of the novel include a fantastic introduction by the author himself. But I will explain briefly what this review has to do with this page and future issues of it.

One of the ideas that are inherent throughout the book is the psychological trouble of the spaceship Discovery's onboard computer named HAL. This is a computer that is artificially intelligent. Because it is afraid of being 'turned off' (though the actual symptoms of HAL's problems are much richer in complications - as to be expected by a free thinking mind), HAL panics and becomes responsible for the deaths of almost all of the crew except one David Bowman. Especially important is when Bowman starts to disconnect HAL by removing one or two at a time, HAL's memory banks: effectively, Bowman was pulling out its brain piece by piece. Bowman actually has to deal with this as a moral dilemma. He is killing HAL. Whether he does so or not is up to you to find out. The book is not much more than £5 or probably £1 in a second-hand book shop.

My mind is a web