Quiz: The Dream of Thinking Machines

Question 1

• ✓2
• ✓1
• ✓0
• ✓It is undefined, because Boole's values are only 0 and 1

Question 2

• ✓10100 after 7 steps
• ✓10100 after 9 steps
• ✓10011 after 5 steps
• ✓100000 after 10 steps

Question 3

• ✓That one machine can solve every mathematical problem
• ✓That a single fixed machine can imitate any other machine when that machine's rule table is written on its tape as data
• ✓That a universal machine can tell whether any other machine will halt, by running it and watching
• ✓That a machine needs more states before it can run a more complicated program

Question 4

• ✓Does the program's source text contain the string DELETE?
• ✓Will the program ever delete a file when it runs?
• ✓Will the program halt on every input?
• ✓Will the program always compute the correct total?

Question 5

• ✓w1 = 1, w2 = 1, θ = 2
• ✓w1 = 1, w2 = 1, θ = 1
• ✓w1 = −1, w2 = −1, θ = −1.5
• ✓w1 = 1, w2 = 1, θ = 3

Question 6

• ✓Because the weights would have to be fractions
• ✓Because threshold units can only compute AND
• ✓Because staying silent on (0, 0) needs a positive threshold, firing on (0, 1) and (1, 0) needs each weight to reach it, and then both weights together exceed it, so the unit also fires on (1, 1)
• ✓Because McCulloch and Pitts did not allow two inputs

Question 7

• ✓56%; no
• ✓44%; yes
• ✓56%; yes
• ✓44%; no, because the 50% guessing baseline must be exceeded first

Question 8

• ✓0.125 bits
• ✓1 bit
• ✓3 bits
• ✓8 bits

Question 9

• ✓0%
• ✓About 0.5%
• ✓About 3%
• ✓About 0.05%

Question 10

• ✓It reported the results of a working AI system
• ✓It predicted that artificial intelligence would take several decades to achieve
• ✓It proposed a two-month, ten-person study and expected "a significant advance" on problems such as language use and self-improvement within a summer
• ✓It was funded in full at $13,500

Question 11

• ✓ELIZA has learned what a gloop is from context
• ✓The reply comes from matching a word pattern and swapping pronouns; a fluent reply is no evidence that anything was understood
• ✓ELIZA would pass any version of the Turing test
• ✓Pattern-matching programs cannot produce grammatical English

Question 12

• ✓The Mill could only add and subtract, so it could not count from 1 to 100
• ✓The column numbers were punched into Variable cards outside the Store, so the Engine could not compute the next column into its own instructions; a stored-program computer holds its instructions in memory, where the program can change them like any other data
• ✓The Store could hold only 50 numbers
• ✓Punched cards could carry operations but not numbers