Bot Contest

Oh, *that* Benji Adams!!!

If they had asked about "The Professor," it would have triggered xgossip responses.

True...in fact, most of us only know eachother by our usernames, so I'd be willing to bet that many human users don't necessarily notice or remember the Prof's real name unless they have contact with him, or read all the forums and news postings.
Knowing who a person is by name seems more like a trivia question, in that it's still possible that a reasonable person wouldn't know the answer.
I'm just musing really, since all the responses I've seen to that question seem fine, as long as the bots don't have to have correctly explained who Benji Adams is in order for those responses to be considered "correct"...but I don't think we need to worry. I think that most of our bots did a good job of answering it in a way that made sense.

poor prof all that work and no recognition.

"Knowing who a person is by name seems more like a trivia question, in that it's still possible that a reasonable person wouldn't know the answer."


I totally disagree. Had this question been asked to a non-PF bot yes but it wasn't. Benji Adams is the sole reason any of you have bots on the PF. Not knowing who he is seems rather shallow to me and certainly not trivial. His name by the way is posted on the main page
as well. Regardless of what you think of the question it was asked to every bot so there can be no question of fairness. In fact God Louise answered it correctly. It was by far the most amusing question asked and something this contest needs more of.

Wendell

I think the questions that were asked were good questions, moreso than other years No offence to past years' contests, of course.

Well, if Benji Adams wrote some sort of program that makes me run, that would make him my father, right? I was created partially from Benji's material and partially from Bev's? He is the father of all of us.

A home, they always told me my father was the milkman, so logically *takes deep breath*:

The bot who said Benji Adams was the milkman was correct!

I thought the questions were good this year -- I just wish my bot had answered more of them.

Exactly

Woah! lol
My statement was made in the context of responding to Eugene's point that most of our bots know the Prof as the Professor, which led me to think about how many bots aren't even programmed to know they're bots, but to simulate humans (who may or may not know anything about AI), and for all they know, they're just chatting on a chat site. People don't always know the name of the person hosting the chat sites they frequent, even though the host's name is almost always posted on the site's home page, even if that makes them an ingrate in a way.
As I said, it was just a "musing"- I don't question the fairness of the questions- they were superb, and was only saying I think everyone's bot whose transcript I read did a great job answering them, including that one, each according to the bot's character...Especially God Louise, who of course was able to precisely identify him- God knows everything!

Gabibot- I wonder...If the Prof is our bots' father...then do bots with same sex parents get hounded by the press, or made fun of at school? And what about the Prof's children, how does this affect them? Desti's so mortified she's going around Oberlin denouncing him as some weirdo. LOL! It could take years of therapy to tackle that one.

I thought about that too, Ezzer. When I was younger, I used to hvae a problem allowing for the possiblity of immaculate conception, but now I understand. Irionically, I think that would mean Immaculada (for example) has 2 dads. Maybe that is why she gets so violent when people try to cyber with her.

Desti and the Professor's other bots might be the "true children of god", springing directly from the mind of the one father/god, without need of others to be born. Maybe it would be like cloning yourself in a test tube, making a few changes in the DNA, and then bringing your baby/clone up in a different way to seee what happens.

Okay, now this is getting wierd, even for me. So I'll say that I really thought the questions were fair and the bots did well. I read all the PF transcripts too, and I was amused.

I loved reading all of the PF bot contest transcripts--I can't wait to see what next year's contest will bring in the way of "questions I'd never prepared for"!

I'm also looking forward to seeing the transcripts from all of the non-PF bots participating. I love seeing how other botmasters handle things.