The Turing Machine on the Dissecting Table
PDF (Czech)

Keywords

Alan M. Turing
bachelor machine
metamodel
posthuman
software as culture

How to Cite

Horáková, J. (2013). The Turing Machine on the Dissecting Table. Teorie vědy Theory of Science, 35(2), 269-288. https://doi.org/10.46938/tv.2013.200

Abstract

THE TURING MACHINE ON THE DISSECTING TABLE

Abstract: Since the beginning of the twenty-first century there has been an increasing awareness that software rep- resents a blind spot in new media theory. The growing interest in software also influences the argument in this paper, which sets out from the assumption that Alan M. Turing's concept of the universal machine, the first theoretical description of a computer program (software), is a kind of bachelor machine (Carrouges). Previous writings based on a similar hypothesis (Daniels, Baudrillard, Turkle, Ascott) have focused either on a comparison of the universal machine and the bachelor machine in terms of the similarities of their structural features, or they have taken the bachelor machine as a metaphor for a man or a computer (artificial intelligence). Unlike them, this paper stresses the importance of the con- text (the imitation game of the Turing test) as a key to interpreting the universal Turing machine as a bachelor machine and, potentially, as a self-portrait.

Keywords: Turing machine; bachelor machine; Turing test; dissecting table; magic

Turingův stroj na pitevním stole

Abstrakt: Od začátku 21. století roste vědomí, že software je slepou skvrnou teorie nových médií. Vzrůstající zájem o software ovlivnil také tezi předklá- daného příspěvku. Vychází z předpo- kladu, že koncept univerzálního stroje Alana M. Turinga je jedním z mláde- neckých strojů (Carrouges). Předchozí texty založené na podobné hypotéze (Daniels, Baudrillard, Turkle, Ascott) se zaměřily buď na srovnání univer- zálního stroje a mládeneckého stroje na základě jejich strukturálních podob- ností, nebo užívaly mládenecký stroj jako metaforu člověka nebo počítače (umělé inteligence). Na rozdíl od nich, tento příspěvek zdůrazňuje význam kontextu (imitační hry Turingova testu), který je klíčem k interpretaci univerzálního Turingova stroje jako mládeneckého stroje a potenciálně jako autoportrétu.

Klíčová slova: Turingův stroj; mládenecký stroj; Turingův test; pitevní stůl; kouzlo

PDF (Czech)

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