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copied!<p>Tell you what: before we answer your question, define "intelligence".</p> <p>The Turing Test, as originally described, had some other problems too, the most notable of them being that it's not "effective", which is to say there is no way to tell when it's over. </p> <p>Now, look at your (quite reasonable) objections: on one hand, if it gives the right answer too quickly, it would make you suspicious; on the other, you're not sure it would be good if it gives wrong answers, even if it would make you think it might be "intelligent."</p> <p>But, now, consider our interaction: you don't know that I'm <em>not</em> an intelligent computer. How about, for a Star Trek reference, Mr Data on ST:TNG? He's certainly distinguishable from a human and doesn't give human responses at all times, but mostly passes.</p> <p>Now, let's for a moment consider a person you meet who, instead of being intelligent, is completely a mechanism: no "consciousness", no "soul." (This kind of entity is called a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie" rel="nofollow noreferrer">"philosophical zombie"</a> in the literature.) <em>Except</em> for that missing "consciousness", this person, or simulacrum of a person, acts like a person in all other ways: expresses pain on an injury, shows pleasure when eating a good meal, shows affection to kittens <del>and small children</del>. (Corrected because I want to pass this test myself.)</p> <p>How could you tell that this philosophical zombie <em>wasn't</em> "intelligent" ?</p> <p>The point here is that you've got good questions, but there aren't necessarily well-accepted answers. My own opinion of the Turing Test is that it's a good valid test, because the point of it, as Turing himself said, is that if you can't tell the difference between an intelligent or sentient computer, and a <em>really</em> intelligent entity, then you have to assume there is no difference.</p> <p>Some other things you could read:</p> <ul> <li>Read about John Searle's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Room" rel="nofollow noreferrer">"Chinese Room"</a></li> <li>Read Doug Hofstadter's <a href="http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0465026567" rel="nofollow noreferrer">"Gödel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid"</a></li> </ul>

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