Ask HN: Would the Internet pass the Turing test?
Just wondering a) if this question makes sense and b) would it pass?
The only thing I can think of that even comes close on the Internet is a search engine that attempts to answer questions according to the way you asked them (for instance, Wolfram Alpha). But even then, anyone can tell the difference between search results and a human. The Internet itself can't pass the test because the Internet is infrastructure, it's not a single entity.
and
it doesn't matter since it isn't a valid question.
The internet is a collection of computers connected through various links that transfer data between themselves and the end users of those computers.
If you would rephrase your question a bit it might start to make sense:
Would it be possible for a computer connected to the internet to run an application that could pass a turing test ?
The answer to that is 'yes', it is possible but that misses the spirit of the Turing Test, which was to mimic intelligence, and so far we've only been able to 'fool' a panel of judges but without any actual intelligence present in the device doing the fooling, merely clever programming.