Human or Machine: Reflections on Turing-Inspired Testing for the Everyday

In his seminal paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", Alan Turing introduced the "imitation game" as part of exploring the concept of machine intelligence. The Turing Test has since been the subject of much analysis, debate, refinement and extension. Here we sidestep the question of whether a particular machine can be labeled intelligent, or can be said to match human capabilities in a given context. Instead, but inspired by Turing, we draw attention to the seemingly simpler challenge of determining whether one is interacting with a human or with a machine, in the context of everyday life. We are interested in reflecting upon the importance of this Human-or-Machine question and the use one may make of a reliable answer thereto. Whereas Turing's original test is widely considered to be more of a thought experiment, the Human-or-Machine question as discussed here has obvious practical significance. And while the jury is still not in regarding the possibility of machines that can mimic human behavior with high fidelity in everyday contexts, we argue that near-term exploration of the issues raised here can contribute to development methods for computerized systems, and may also improve our understanding of human behavior in general

Autonomics: In Search of a Foundation for Next Generation Autonomous Systems

The potential benefits of autonomous systems have been driving intensive development of such systems, and of supporting tools and methodologies. However, there are still major issues to be dealt with before such development becomes commonplace engineering practice, with accepted and trustworthy deliverables. We argue that a solid, evolving, publicly available, community-controlled foundation for developing next generation autonomous systems is a must. We discuss what is needed for such a foundation, identify a central aspect thereof, namely, decision-making, and focus on three main challenges: (i) how to specify autonomous system behavior and the associated decisions in the face of unpredictability of future events and conditions and the inadequacy of current languages for describing these; (ii) how to carry out faithful simulation and analysis of system behavior with respect to rich environments that include humans, physical artifacts, and other systems,; and (iii) how to engineer systems that combine executable model-driven techniques and data-driven machine learning techniques. We argue that autonomics, i.e., the study of unique challenges presented by next generation autonomous systems, and research towards resolving them, can introduce substantial contributions and innovations in system engineering and computer science

Les 47 autobiographies de Jacques Rebotier ou comment se raconter poétiquement et jouer de la déroute

« Les poètes sont bien toujours des Narcisse. »Fragment 132 de l’Athenaeum…« Toute vérité est nombrilique. »Jacques Rebotier, Le Désordre des langages.« Je suis né au moment où je m’y attendais le moins ». C’est ainsi que Jacques Rebotier débute son ouvrage, 47 autobiographies. Dès cette première phrase, le cadre est posé. Le poète est joueur. La partie s’annonce rude pour celui qui chercherait à trouver des éléments biographiques précis sur la vie de l’auteur ou sur son apparence physique. ..

L’opéra du dialogue (impossible ?) des cultures

Zaïde, Gomatz :Möchten doch einst Ruh’ und FriedeNach so vieler Qual und Peinunsrer Treue Preise sein !Johann Andreas Schachtner, Zaïde Durant l’été 2006, le Festival de Salzbourg célébrait les 250 ans de la naissance de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Pour cette édition particulière, tous les opéras du compositeur furent donnés et confiés, majoritairement, à des metteurs en scène allemands et autrichiens. Le parti pris de Peter Ruzicka, alors directeur du Festival, ne fut pas de rendre un hommage c..

Les 47 autobiographies de Jacques Rebotier ou comment se raconter poétiquement et jouer de la déroute

« Les poètes sont bien toujours des Narcisse. »Fragment 132 de l’Athenaeum… « Toute vérité est nombrilique. »Jacques Rebotier, Le Désordre des langages. « Je suis né au moment où je m’y attendais le moins ». C’est ainsi que Jacques Rebotier débute son ouvrage, 47 autobiographies. Dès cette première phrase, le cadre est posé. Le poète est joueur. La partie s’annonce rude pour celui qui chercherait à trouver des éléments biographiques précis sur la vie de l’auteur ou sur son apparence physique...

Virtual PLC Lab Enabled Physical Layer Improvement Proposals for PRIME and G3-PLC Standards

Narrowband (NB) powerline communication (PLC) is extensively adopted by utilities for the communication in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems. PLC technology needs to overcome channel disturbances present in certain grid segments. This study analyzes improvement proposals of the physical layer of the main narrowband PLC technologies approved by international communication organizations that are currently deployed in Europe: Powerline Intelligent Metering Evolution (PRIME) 1.3.6, PRIME 1.4, and G3-PLC, in order to improve PLC performance under channel disturbances. This thorough study is based on simulations carried out by an innovative ad hoc Virtual PLC Lab, developed by the authors, applied in replicable, fully-automated, and cost reduced test scenarios. The analysis is performed by applying standardized test methods and metrics, and by evaluating the influence of a set of representative channel disturbances defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and selected noises generated by distributed energy resources (DER) in normal operation. PLC performance improvements in terms of equalizer curve fitting, error correction codes, and noisy subcarrier suppression mechanisms are presented. The performance gain due to each physical improvement proposal is accurately measured and compared under the same conditions in a replicable and automated test environment in order to evaluate the use of the proposals in the evolution of future PLC technologies.This work was financially supported in part by the Basque Government under the grant numbers Elkartek KK-2018/00037 and IT1234-19, and by the Spanish Government under the grant RTI2018-099162-B-I00 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE)