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Turing Test
Nov. 3rd, 2006 04:33 pmThe 3-year-old made the dragon puppet roar at me. I cowered. "Eek! A dragon!" Then she handed me the dragon puppet and took a plastic 1" cube out of her toy basket. She asked me to help her open the latch. A tiny plastic teddy bear popped out of the cube, like a jack-in-the-box. The little girl tried to push it back into the box, but needed help with the latch again. She could make the tiny bear say, "Eek! A dragon!" just fine, though. When I opened the latch to make the bear pop out again, I made the dragon cower behind the edge of the table. "Eek! A bear!"
The child was holding the bear in the box, but she said, "Where?" I made the dragon advance timidly and point to the bear with a huge red satin wing. The dragon is more than 10 times bigger than the bear. The dragon scuttled away again, saying, "Bears eat people! Oh no! Run away!"
"You're not a people! You're a dragon!"
(Do you have any idea how hard it is to show rightous indignation with a hand puppet? I did my best.) "Of course I'm people! People talk to each other, right?" The little girl nodded. The dragon went on, "And here I am talking to you."
"So you must be people!" She kissed the dragon, then asked nervously, "people don't eat people?"
The dragon could be reassuring, now that the bear in the box had been dropped. "No, no, of course not. We're friends. I would never eat a friend. Er...what do I eat?" It turns out that dragons of that sort eat red glass beads. That's why they have such shiny red scales.
The child was holding the bear in the box, but she said, "Where?" I made the dragon advance timidly and point to the bear with a huge red satin wing. The dragon is more than 10 times bigger than the bear. The dragon scuttled away again, saying, "Bears eat people! Oh no! Run away!"
"You're not a people! You're a dragon!"
(Do you have any idea how hard it is to show rightous indignation with a hand puppet? I did my best.) "Of course I'm people! People talk to each other, right?" The little girl nodded. The dragon went on, "And here I am talking to you."
"So you must be people!" She kissed the dragon, then asked nervously, "people don't eat people?"
The dragon could be reassuring, now that the bear in the box had been dropped. "No, no, of course not. We're friends. I would never eat a friend. Er...what do I eat?" It turns out that dragons of that sort eat red glass beads. That's why they have such shiny red scales.
