by Don Viecelli
“Don’t get too excited, Timothy,” Charles commented from the front. “G will be busy during the competition. I’m not sure how much time he will have to explore the pier.”
Julian turned his head and explained to Timothy, “There may be a little time at the lunch break to walk around the pier. The first round of testing will be held in the morning. The second round will be judged in the afternoon. The contest should be concluded by five o’clock.”
“I would like to go on the Ferris wheel with you, Timothy, if we get the chance,” G said. Navy Pier has a lot of new attractions since they renovated the pier a few years ago. I especially would like to walk along the waterfront and see the new pool and the marina where the Tall Ships will be.”
“How did you know about the Tall Ships?” Timothy asked surprised by G’s comments.
“They were on the news channels. I watched them before we left this morning.”
That reminded Timothy to turn on the TV screen in the back seat to search the net and watch some movies while they were on the highway. Time passed quickly. Traffic got heavier as they got closer to the city. Soon they exited off the highway and onto Lake Shore Drive. G was transfixed looking at all the sites along the road. The lake and boat marinas were on his right. Soon, the huge convention center, football and baseball stadiums, field and history museums, aquarium, planetarium and many hotels and tall buildings were all around him. G took it all in and understood how complex a large city like Chicago must be. Then up ahead on his right, G could see the manmade Navy Pier peninsula extending out into the lake.
Timothy decided to search for any news regarding the Loebner contest. He found a video that showed a large group of protesters marching in front of the entrance to Navy Pier. He turned up the volume so they could all hear. “Dad, there are a lot of people waving signs at Navy Pier. Do you think there will be trouble?”
Charles turned onto East Grand Street. They were getting very close to the entrance to Navy Pier. “I don’t expect any trouble, Timothy, but there may be a lot of protesters this year because some people don’t like how fast the world is changing. They want to keep things simple and limit what is being done by technology. Hopefully, we will drive pass them.”
Charles reached the entrance to Navy Pier. He saw the protesters in front of the main entrance, but thankfully there were police and traffic guards directing cars away from the crowd to the parking garage, which was located on the other side toward the middle of the pier. Charles followed the signs leading to the Loebner Prize Contest parking area. He drove inside and parked. They all got out and followed the signs to the complex called Festival Hall. Charles and Julian led the way. Timothy walked beside G. There were people in the hallway and many stopped to look at G as he passed by. They seemed to know why he was there, since G was not the only android in attendance. At least two other androids were standing around the registration sign-in tables. None of them acknowledged people as they walked by. They seemed to be controlled by their designers and stood at attention as if awaiting orders to move.
Charles and Julian walked up to the registration booth to sign-in. “We are here for the Loebner Contest,” Julian said. The lady behind the booth smiled, said hello and entered Julian’s name into the computer to verify registration. Then she handed over their badges with instructions and told them what room to go to for the contest. She looked at G and seemed surprised by his demeanor. G did not say anything to her.
The meeting room was up the escalator to the left. When they walked inside the room there were 16 cubicles laid out in a rectangular pattern. Inside each cubicle was a desk with two chairs and one computer screen. Each desk had an identification tag labeled from Entity 1 to Entity 16. G’s registration badge identified him as Entity 5. Julian explained the setup to them. “There are eight machines and eight human ‘Confederates’ participating in the contest. One machine and one human will be paired together and judged by each of the eight judges.” Julian paused to see if Charles and Timothy understood. Then he continued.
“G will set at this desk and operate the computer since I did not have to load a separate machine program. The judges will ask each Entity questions for 25 minutes over the computer and G will try to answer each question as a human would. G can type the answer or speak into the microphone and the computer will convert voice to text. The judges will only know that one Entity is a machine and one Entity is a human when asking the questions. After the questioning is done, the judge will decide which Entity is the human. If he can’t decide, then he has been fooled and both will be judged as human. Each pair of Entities will be judged by each of the eight judges. Then the scores will be tabulated. The three machine Entities with the highest scores will win the contest. The rating will determine if the winners are Bronze, Silver or Gold. No machine has ever won the Gold level. The Gold Prize this year is one million dollars. The contest will begin in a few minutes. Only G can remain in this cubicle. We must wait outside or in the main conference room. G should be done with the first four-hour session by noon.”
Julian turned to G. “You are on your own, G. When you receive the first question, just answer as if you were human. You must try to fool them if they ask a personal question. Just do your best. I will be outside the door waiting for the lunch break. ”
“I understand, Julian. I am prepared for this,” G said. He sat down at the desk and looked at the computer screen. There was a message, which said the contest would begin in five minutes.
“Good luck, G,” Timothy said as they were leaving the room. He followed Julian and Charles out the door. Julian said he would wait in the hallway until G was finished. He sat down in one of the chairs and made himself comfortable. Charles and Timothy decided to walk outside and see the sites. Charles promised to keep in touch with his smartphone. All they could do now was wait for the contest to begin.
Chapter 17
G stared at the screen. He could hear other androids and human Confederates getting ready in their cubicles for the contest to begin. Some of the humans were talking to each other in hushed voices. Then a voice came over the loudspeaker in the room and told the participants to sit down at their desks. The contest was about to begin.
G decided he would type his answers for the first judge. It would give him more time to think of the right answer. G knew that he would be paired with the same human for every session. He just didn’t know if he would be asked questions first or second. The answer to that question was resolved when his computer screen blinked on with the following message: Welcome to the Loebner Prize Contest. Questions will begin shortly. Please answer each question posed by the judges.
Question 1: Hello. Welcome to the contest. My name is Herbert. I am going to begin asking you questions for twenty-five minutes. How are you today?
G answered: I am fine, thank you.
Question 2: What city are you in?
G answered: I am in Chicago.
Question 3:What time is it?
G answered:It is 8:10 a.m. in the morning.
Question 4:What do you do for a living?
G answered:I am a student.
Question 5:What do you study?
G answered: I am studying science and other things.
Question 6: That sounds interesting. Do you like science?
G answered;Yes, I do.
Question 7:Very well. What tool would you use to drive a nail?
G answered:I would use a hammer.
Question 8:Which is faster, a car or a plane?
G answered:A plane is faster.
Question 9:Which is slower, a rabbit or a turtle?
G answered:A turtle.
Question 10:George is older than Nancy. Nancy is older than Tom. Which of them is the oldest?
G answered:George is the oldest.
Question 11:Which of them is the youngest?
G answered:Tom is the youngest.
Question 12:I have a friend named Charles who lives in the same town as I do.
; What town do I live in?
G answered:You did not tell me what town you live in.
Question 13:What is the name of my friend?
G answered:His name is Charles.
Question 14:Which is bigger, a dog or a horse?
G answered:A horse is bigger.
Question 15:Which do you like better, baseball or football?
G answered:I like baseball better.
Question 16:Do you play any sports?
G answered:I can hit a golf ball pretty far.
Question 17:What type of boats do you like?
G answered:I like sailboats the best.
Question 18:What season of the year is it?
G answered:It is now summertime.
Question 19:Is summer hot or cold?
G answered:Summer is hot.
Question 20:Do you like snow?
G answered:Yes, it’s pretty.
Question 21:What state is Chicago in?
G answered: Illinois.
Question 22:What country is Illinois in?
G answered:United States.
Question 23:Is the world round or flat?
G answered:The world is round.
Question 24:Do you like to travel?
G answered:Yes.
Question 25:Where would you like to travel the most?
G answered:I would like to travel to outer space.
Herbert:Well, that is the end of my questions. I must say you seem very human to me. Have a pleasant day in Chicago.
G answered:Thank you. I will.
The computer screen went dark. Then a message came up saying G could start and finish the visual portion of the test anytime between questioning sessions. G decided to start the visual test right away. He pressed the button and a series of pictures were presented with three choices below each picture. G had to associate the right description with each picture. This portion of the test would be used to help score the Entries for the top prize.
G continued to work on the visual test in between new sessions with the judges. Whenever the next judge was ready to start sending questions, G would receive a message on the screen. Each new judge asked similar questions, but not all were as easy as the first session. The questions seemed to get harder as the sessions continued. He had to complete four sessions before noon. Then there was a one hour break for lunch. G finished the fourth session 15 minutes early and walked out of the room where Julian, Charles and Timothy were waiting for him.
“How did it go, G?” Timothy was the first one to ask. He looked excited from his activities on the pier.
“The questions were relatively easy. The judges seemed to be testing my abilities with different questions for memory, reasoning and logic. I believe I did well.”
Julian watched as the other contestants, mostly human, left the room. Several stared at G as they walked by. They seemed surprised that he was able to walk and operate on his own. Julian announced, “I’m going to have some lunch, G. Why don’t you go with Charles and Timothy?”
“We have a surprise for you, G” Timothy said. “We have tickets to ride the Ferris wheel.”
Charles added, “We already ate lunch, G and you have one hour to explore the pier. Timothy really wants to take you on the ride. Do you want to go?”
“Yes,” G answered. “I would like that.”
As Julian departed to find lunch at one of the many food concessionaires on the pier, Charles and Timothy led G down the escalator to the main floor area and then walked through the glass doors to the promenade that ran the entire length of the pier. They turned right and followed the signs to the entranceway where the Ferris wheel was located. They had to take another escalator to the top of the pier and get in line for the ride. When they reached the attendant, Timothy handed over two tickets for the ride. Charles had ridden the Ferris wheel before with Timothy and decided to just watch his son and G enjoy the ride.
“Isn’t this great, G?” Timothy said excitedly. He could not wait to get to the top. “I wonder how high it is?”
“The Ferris wheel is 46 meters or 150 feet high. It can hold 240 people. It is a recreation of the first Ferris wheel built in 1893 for the Chicago World Fair. I believe it will hold us safely while it rotates.” G said this while the attendant made sure the handlebar was securely locked in place. He glanced at G while he did this with a curious expression on his face.
As the wheel moved forward to let on more passengers, Timothy pulled out his smartphone to take pictures. “Wait until my friends back home see this,” he said.
G was looking out over the pier to the Chicago skyline facing south along the lake. The weather was warm in the bright sunshine, but it did not affect his eyes. He noticed a large group of people pushing their way toward the middle of the pier from the entrance. They were carrying large signs and shouting slogans he could clearly hear. He did not say anything to Timothy. He did not want to distract him from his excitement.
Soon the Ferris wheel was turning full circle for the ride. Timothy was exhilarated and was waving his hands to Charles on the ground. He took several pictures of Navy Pier, the city skyline, people enjoying themselves swimming at the end of the pier, others walking in the floating gardens and catching boat rides along the marina. He finally noticed the protesters as they gathered in front of the building where the contest was being held. He took pictures of the crowd. He had stopped smiling when the ride finally came to an end.
As Timothy and G got off the Ferris wheel and met Charles, Timothy expressed his concern. “Dad, did you see the protesters?”
“No, Timothy. I can’t see them from here. But I do hear them now. Let’s get back to the contest area before there’s any trouble.” They walked to the exit and looked down the escalator. There were a lot of people filling the area. Charles looked for another way to get back to the conference hall, but the only way was down the escalator and through the crowd.
*****
In one of the upstairs meeting rooms, the eight judges were sitting down at a large round table eating lunch. They were discussing the contestants and how the question and answer sessions were going. Herbert Brodsky was curious about one of his sessions and decided to ask the other judges if they had a similar experience. “I had a session this morning that confused me. I could not tell which contestant was the machine. I was wondering if any of you had a similar session.”
Mary Ann, a psychology professor judge from a Michigan university was quick to respond, “Me too. I tried to ask questions only a human could understand, but both entities passed easily. I thought I made a mistake, but the machine fooled me, I’m sure.”
“The same thing happened to me,” said Jack, another computer science professor for University of Chicago. “I double checked to make sure two human confederates were not in the same session. They were not.”
A forth judge, Izmir, a mathematics professor from California, confirmed he had a similar experience. Everyone stopped eating after that announcement. Clearly, something was amiss.
Herbert was stunned. He took a sip of tea and spoke to the group. “Apparently, we have a new development here. No machine has ever fooled four judges before. If this is the case, then we have something special happening here. There are four more sessions after lunch. I will speak to the director of the contest and make sure there are no mistakes in the pairings of one machine and one human confederate for each of the sessions. Make sure your questions are specific for determining human intelligence. Are there any questions?”
No one had any questions. They understood what they must do. Herbert noticed some of the waiters looking out the window. Something was happening on the pier. He left the table to take a look. Down below a large crowd of people were gathered holding signs and protesting the contest in front of the convention center. The police were trying to get things under control and move the protesters back out of the pier. It did not look good.
Chapter 18
Charles pushed his way through the crowd with Timothy and G fo
llowing right behind him. Someone shouted out “Robot” and the crowd grew uglier. The police saw G and knew they were there for the Loebner Contest by the identification tags they were wearing around their necks. They struggled to open a lane for the three of them to get back to the conference center.
People started shoving in every direction. The crowd was too large to handle by the police. Timothy grew frightened. Charles was yelling at people in front of him to let them through. The situation was becoming frantic. Suddenly there was a scream from the edge of the pier. People started crying out in alarm. The unruly horde had pushed some of the visitors back to the edge of the new walkway that allowed people access to the boat docks. There was no safety railing. People were swept into the dark, cold 65 degree Michigan water. The water was over twenty feet deep and there was no way for them to reach the top of the pier to get out.
When the throng realized what was happening the noise quieted down. People in the water and along the edge of the pier were crying for help. A dozen people were in the water; some of them could not swim. Fortunately, there were life preserver stations every ten feet or so. People on the walkway threw out the life preservers, but the supply was limited. Several people called 911 for help, but help would not arrive for several minutes. Time was critical. One older man in the water managed to pull a younger boy to the edge of the platform and hoist him up to waiting hands. Another young mother was crying out in fear while treading water. Her little girl had gone under the waves.