Please prove you're not a robot

The above is a clearer than usual "Please prove you're not a robot" picture. For the very few who may read this, and don't know what this is about, Blogger users (I'm one) can elect to ask for verification before a reader's comment will be accepted. I don't do that, but the result is some spam comments in my e-mail on most days. I can understand those who do use this system.

Am I really a robot? Well, now, I don't think so, but that might be hard to prove, in this day and time. First, we have to agree on a test. The Turing test is a famous test, introduced by Alan Turing, which was designed to test to see if a computer could fake responses to questions and statements well enough to fool someone interacting with it, who couldn't see who, or what, was producing the responses.

ELIZA, a computer program, produced about 15 years after Turing's proposal, seemed, at least in some cases, to pass the test, posing as a therapist, or a good listener.

You can check out an implementation of ELIZA here.

Note that Blogger has chosen to test for visual recognition, in trying to screen out spam comments, rather than allowing typed entries. Does that mean that Blogger can't tell the difference? Perhaps.

Computers are getting more sophisticated. Will they ever be able to completely fool us, on the phone, e-mailing, on Facebook, as movie stars or elected officials? I don't know. We live in interesting times.

Thanks for reading. I'm not a robot. I hope you aren't.