Philosopher World Theme Park
Drawn by a student named Tyler in an Ethics class Nat and I taught many years ago.
posted by Charles P. Everitt at 10:04 PM
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Drawn by a student named Tyler in an Ethics class Nat and I taught many years ago.
1 Comments:
Just last evening, Terry told us how he worked at one of the first Six Flags.
He had two jobs. The first was to serve as a tour guide on a re-creation of La Salle's river expedition. Dressed in white sneakers, high-water, white bell bottoms, a red and white striped shirt, and straw hat, Terry delivered a speech about fifteen minutes in length while he "steered" the boat (guiding on tracks) through the river (dyed an opaque green). He says he can still do the whole speech, but only gave us a brief bit from the beginning.
The second job is still more ridiculous. He was the voice of an artificial parrot! People would come in and talk to the bird, and he would produce stock responses. However, he wasn't entirely scripted. He reports having arguments people. One guy said that the bird was merely trained to respond and wasn't really talking. Terry retorted, "I can talk". And so a debate ensued which culminated in the man walking off after Terry asked, "So, how are you arguing with a bird that can't talk?" Another guy said that the bird wasn't really talking, but that there was a person somewhere else doing the talking.
Are Terry and his bird a rendition of Turing's test? Even if they're not, surely they belong at Philosopher World.
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