{"id":7523,"date":"2013-06-06T10:53:44","date_gmt":"2013-06-06T14:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=7523"},"modified":"2013-06-06T10:53:44","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T14:53:44","slug":"choose-the-theme-of-this-years-ideological-turing-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2013\/06\/choose-the-theme-of-this-years-ideological-turing-test.html","title":{"rendered":"Choose the theme of this year’s Ideological Turing Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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There are specialized comment rules for this post, make sure to read them before commenting.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the inaugural Atheist\/Christian Ideological Turing Test<\/a>, I asked the participants to answer questions about evidence<\/a> (What shapes your current beliefs? \u00a0What would convince you otherwise?). \u00a0That prompt turned out to elicit pretty dull and easy to predict answers, so, in 2012, I switched to a weirder theme<\/a> and asked contestants to talk about authority and aesthetics.<\/p>\n

And now \u201cSumer Is Icumen In\/Lhude sing cuccu!<\/a>\u201d \u00a0(Which is quite apropos, as cuckoos are brood parasites<\/a> \u2014 they\u2019re good enough at mimicking the eggs of other birds that they can pass off their offspring to other birds\u2019 nests). \u00a0So, it\u2019s time to pick themes and formats for this year\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d quite like to experiment with something a little closer to the traditional Turing Test \u2014 chat transcripts, where contestants have to think on their feet instead of being able to prepare and polish their answers, but I\u2019m concerned it will be gamed in boring ways. \u00a0Testers might default to asking trivia (\u201cWhat was the Pope\u2019s old name?\u201d \u00a0\u201cWhat are the criteria of the Lemon test<\/a>?\u201d etc). \u00a0So, I\u2019d\u00a0like<\/em> to be persuaded into this format, but I need a way to set it up that incentivises the player and the proctor to be\u00a0interesting<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To pass a straight Ideological Turing Test, you can always just try to rely on Poe\u2019s Law<\/a>\u00a0and try to imitate the worst of the opposing ideology, confident that it represents some subset of the group. \u00a0The equivalent in a computer Turing Test is just cussing out the interlocutor. \u00a0Anger is very easy to duplicate; it doesn\u2019t require you to listen to your partner.<\/p>\n

Since these entries are public, I want to be able to learn a little more from them than what I could get trawling comboxes. \u00a0I like players to try to\u00a0understand<\/em> what the other ideology feels like from the inside. \u00a0What is your opposite number trying to protect? \u00a0Where do they anticipate threats? \u00a0What delights them?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One idea I\u2019ve been kicking around is making everyone write on the four loves<\/a>. \u00a0Not the Lewis book<\/a> specifically, but\u00a0storge<\/em>,\u00a0phileo<\/em>,\u00a0eros<\/em>, and\u00a0agape<\/em>. \u00a0Do contestants think this is a useful taxonomy? \u00a0Have they got an alternate arrangement? \u00a0How do they find these categories differ? \u00a0Are any currently neglected? \u00a0How would you help strengthen\/support them?<\/p>\n

Players and judges will have more trouble anticipating the answers for a prompt along these lines. \u00a0That makes this not a very useful sorting criteria (heck, if that was we cared about, we\u2019d stick with giveaway jargon and analysis of social connections<\/a>). \u00a0But I expect it will make writers and readers think harder and differently about what matters most to opponents and what shapes their judgements.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, have at it. \u00a0The floor is open for suggestions. \u00a0To make my life a little easier, I\u2019m splitting the combox into specialized threads<\/strong>. \u00a0That means you should\u00a0not<\/em> be posting top-level comments. \u00a0You should only be replying to other commenters or to one of my category comments. \u00a0They are as follows:<\/p>\n