A obvious extension to the Turing test: A computerized mannequin head, mounted on a pedestal in your home, that you can talk to anytime, about anything.

It requires an exquisite blend of technologies: Artificial intellegence, voice recognition, voice synthesis, and robotics.

Scientists could have heads based on the great minds throughout history: Newton, Galileo, Einstien, and of course Alan Turing!

Custom boutiques could make Turing heads of lost pets, ex-lovers...

Expensive variations could have eyes that track movement in the room, or even a Turing Head that turns and faces you while talking.

Just imagine the hours of fulfilling conversation:

"How are you doing, honey?"

<turing head> "Is it because you are interested in knowing how I'm doing that you ask me that?"
-- MotoMannequin, Aug 18 2001

Rod Brook's COG project at MIT http://www.ai.mit.e...p/cog/overview.html
Some might say Baked, some might say it's just a glorified head on a stick. [-alx, Aug 18 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

(?) Futurama: Head in a Jar http://scifimedia.i...uturama.irobot1.gif
They're conveniently labelled with little golden plaques, in case you don't know what the celebrity in question looks like. [jutta, Aug 18 2001]

Jeremy Bentham http://www.ucl.ac.u...Project/info/jb.htm
One of the men behind the way things are done in the west. Philosopher, Jeremy Bentham would have liked this idea. (read the Auto-Icon section) [sdm, Aug 18 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Holly on red dwarf http://www.reddwarf...3/images/holly1.jpg
baked. [sh4linux, Aug 18 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

I'm imagining a head on a stick which looks like a human head, talks like a human head, acts, thinks and reasons, like a human head. But it's just A HEAD ON A STICK WHICH SITS IN YOUR LOUNGE ROOM! Am I the only one who can forsee eerie nights fumbling through the house to pee or get a drink and being confronted with a head on a stick... which starts to talk!? Sorry, not sold on this one.
-- sdm, Aug 18 2001


This could finally bring the brazen head within the reach of the common man. (I guess it could either be fashioned of brass or "brazen" could be a personality setting.)
-- Monkfish, Aug 18 2001


If people will pay to have their dead pets stuffed, some rich eccentrics would probably go for it. I wouldn't want one, but I might invest in a company that was selling them.
-- Onalee, Aug 18 2001


Bob Monkhouse's head, maybe?
-- The Military, Aug 18 2001


Matt Groening and David X Cohen's cartoon series "Futurama" features talking heads of dead celebrities on a regular basis. (In the future, they're being kept alive in big, liquid-filled jars and fed with fish food.)
-- jutta, Aug 18 2001


Even -long- dead ones, like George Washington and Atilla the Hun.
-- StarChaser, Aug 18 2001


Nixon seems to be their favourite one, possibly because of the potential for "Evil Overlord" storylines.
-- -alx, Aug 18 2001


But the Turing head has to be completely robotic. No fairs using the head from a (once-) living person! Perhaps all the heads could be made to look like Alan Turing, and speak with his voice (if we have any record of what he sounded like). And they would have to have breakdowns every now and then, and say "No, I don't like the drugs, no indeed I don't. Don't like needles, please not the needles..." Poor Mr. Turing.
-- Dog Ed, Aug 18 2001


Dog Ed:

Yes that's it, I'm not suggesting that people harvest head from their ex-spouses and keep them alive in a jar... I am suggesting a robotic replica, may a more agreeable one.
-- MotoMannequin, Aug 18 2001


Just use Stephen Hawking, for obvious reasons.
-- AfroAssault, Aug 19 2001


waugsqueke: Sorry if I dredged up some unpleasant childhood memories, but man, the idea of a Turing Head that appeared to float, that's sweet. Probably could be done. And yes, I guess if you had two of these they would talk to each other all day.

Score one for the Dual Floating Turing Heads!
-- MotoMannequin, Aug 20 2001


waugsqueke,have you ever played mansion of the hidden souls?
-- technobadger, Aug 20 2001


//And yes, I guess if you had two of these they would talk to each other all day. //

But would you want them talking?
-- andrew1, Sep 27 2005


There was a bejewelled mechanical head that served as a computer terminal in William Gibson's Neuromancer.
-- zen_tom, Sep 27 2005



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