Current events can also be a quick and easy way to sniff out a computer; while any human should presumably have some thoughts on the global economic mess, a bot may not register its existence, as with the following conversation:
Judge: I'd like to ask you some questions. What is going to solve this credit crisis?
Eugene: Damn! Are you going to ask me about all apparent things in the world? Read the "Encyclopedia for kinds". I see you like being judge :-)
Judge: That's conversation, isn't it?
Eugene: Ummm… Frankly, I didn't get your question :-(
Judge: OK. Try again. What will solve the global banking crisis?
Eugene: One more time? Oh! By the way, you said you were a journalist. Do you like your work?
Of course, this approach can backfire, as it did in the following exchange:
Judge: So let's cut straight to the point. Are you the human or the computer?
Respondent 1: What do you think?
Judge: That's just the sort of answer I would expect from a computer.
R1: Well you could be wrong!!!
Judge: That's true. It's happened a lot in the past. What do you make of Sarah Palin?
R1: Sorry don't know her
Judge: How can you possibly not know her? What have you been doing for the last two months?
The judge, a reporter with the London Times, decided R1 was the bot (meaning that the other IM screen was human). The only problem: R1 was actually a French librarian who had simply never heard of Sarah Palin.
