That’s an interesting way to look at spam filters. It makes me think of the spam emails we all get. A lot of time they’re laughable because the language is so clearly “not human”–that is, so clearly pieced together by a machine. Sometimes though, they read as “not English-speaking” instead. Especially since I’m living in a country we’re I’m not a native speakers, that then makes me wonder about transferring the concepts behind the Turing test (human/non-human) to language (native/non-native speaker). Can you tell who is who?

And one science fiction writer has said that spam filters are nothing more than a Turing test. Now we are seeing humans used to bypass another form of Turing test.

As for this captcha thing, the reason that in some ways its more appealing than free porn is that it does give a sense of accomplishment. Virtual worlds are finding it’s more productive to let people earn things than just giving it to them.

Anyways Fred, I’ll definitely check that out. Thanks!

“… thing systems is something”?

I writin’ BAD!

If you’re interested in how that sort of thing can be applied to labeling all of the pictures on the web or teaching computers subtle nuances of “common sense”, check it out!