Reading group: Turing’s “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” (1950)

Turing's paper appeared in Mind in 1950, and it is far more playful and far less dated than its reputation suggests.

He replaces the question "can machines think?" with the imitation game, then works through nine objections: the theological objection, the "heads in the sand" objection, the mathematical objection (Gödel), the argument from consciousness, arguments from various disabilities, Lady Lovelace's objection that machines only do what they're told, the argument from continuity in the nervous system, the argument from informality of behaviour, and, surprisingly, the argument from extrasensory perception.

The final section on "learning machines", where he suggests building a child machine and educating it, is the part that reads as most prophetic.

Let's take a week and start with the objections. Which one do you think Turing handles worst?