©Huma Shah June 2010

Submitted to IJIS

Turing’s Test and the Muslim Woman

century mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing’s brilliant and prescient 1950article

Computing Machinery and Intelligence

(CMI) introduced the eponymous machinetest for intellectual capacity conveyed through text-based question and answer sessions. Yet

for sixty years the Muslim woman has cowered as ‘the elephant in Turing’s imitation room’largely ignored among the mountainous

thinking machine

debate save for a footnote fromFord, Glymour, and Hayes

. In section 6 of CMI, countering pre-emptive objections in

Contrary Views on the Main Question

‘can machines think?’ Turing espoused opposingviews to his. Beginning with the holy stance

A. M. Turing (1950). Computing Machinery and Intelligence.

Mind, 59 (236)

, p. 433-460

, that anything man-made could not have a‘soul’ Turing wrote

“Thinking is a function of a man’s immortal soul. God has given animmortal soul to every man and woman, but not to any other animal or to machines. Henceno animal or machine can think”

(p.443). Turing gave no indication of ‘whose’ God he wasciting but he added in the footnote on that page

“…the fact that men’s souls are immortal and therefore indestructible”

. Turing’s otherwise seminal piece collapses as he, attempting topalliate the theological objection, explains

“The arbitrary character of the orthodox viewbecomes clearer if we consider how it might appear to a member of some other religiouscommunity”

continuing with the verisimilitude,

“How do Christians regard the Moslem viewthat women have no souls?”

(p.443). Turing elides how he became aware of this viewpreferring to brush it aside

“But let us leave this point aside and return to the mainargument”

(ibid). Turing’s rebuttal of the theological position leaves him to attest

“I am not very impressed with theological arguments whatever they may be used to support”

(ibid).Turing’s casuistry is not impressive either. As Ford, Glymour and Hayes state “Turing’ssource for this view is unknown. The contrary opinion is given in the Qu’ran” (see footnote

Page 44 In (Eds) R. Epstein, G. Roberts and G, Beber 2008 book

Parsing the Turing Test

Section 6 ‘Contrary Views on the Main question’ (1950, p.442)

©Huma Shah June 2010

Submitted to IJIS

2). Thus we wish to expiate here Turing’s use of the calumny

“Moslem view that womenhave no souls”

.The view of women subordinated by nature is ancient predating belief systems such asIslam, Christianity and Judaism

. Classical philosopher Aristotle likened rule of men overwomen to rule of soul over the body, unlike statements in the Qu’ran which aver that menand women exist in their own right. Qu’ranic texts do not apportion blame for the ‘greatestever deception’ of eating from the forbidden tree to Eve alone. Nor does the Qu’ran explicatethat the

first

woman

was created as an ‘after thought’, from the rib of the

first man

, or that shebe unheard and hidden from view. With current controversy about wearing of the veil, theearliest evidence of women wearing a veil is found in painted vases from Ancient Greek times

. The giver of democracy to Western civilisation, the Athenians, disqualified womenfrom voting. Their society believed women to be demons possessed by spirits

L. Ahmed (1992).

Women and Gender in Islam

. Yale University Press: New Haven, US

. At that timewomen’s life expectancy was lower than that of men, which Blundell reminds fromAristotle’s explanation “men naturally live longer than women because they have more heatin their bodies” (footnote 5, p. 112). Turing does not present any opinion on the concurrentBritish view of women’s soul. Under his own supervision, women worked as ‘humancomputers’ assisting (mostly) men with code-breaking at Bletchley Park during World WarII. His 1950 paper appeared less than a quarter of a century since his country women underthe age of 30 in 1928 were awarded the vote on equal terms with men. Turing’s father was inthe Civil Service in Empire India, which, despite the British Raj remained predominantlyHindu inheriting and continuing to practice in isolated cases in the 20

century, the customoutlawed by the British a century earlier, the practice of self-immolation-

suttee

, where a

S. Blundell, S. (1995).

Women in Ancient Greece

. Volume 2. British Museum Press, ISBN: 0-7141-2219-X

Bettany Hughes:

Athens: The Truth about Democracy

, documentary broadcast on More4, April 28, 2010:http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-ancient-world-with-bettany-hughes/4od#3057803