# The Singularity is Near! (Internet 20 questions) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 25, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308 "2010-01-25T02:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/41 "2010-01-25T15:25:09Z")
Stumped on Metacrisis Doctor (Doctor Who). ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/42 "2010-01-25T15:26:36Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Freaky enough when it works. Penfold from Danger Mouse in 13. [/QUOTE] \*\*Basil Fawlty \*\*in about 6, \*\*Bagpuss \*\*in about the same, 2nd try got **Hiro Protagonist**. Even got close to \*\*Major Clanger \*\*(generic ‘Clangers’, I gave it a win). Failed after three guesses for **Noggin The Nog** but he’s in the database now. Failed on **Moomintroll** too but got \*\*Jabberwocky \*\*first try. This is fun. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/43 "2010-01-25T15:27:15Z")
I was thinking of Hazel from Watership Down but it guessed Fiver. It got Marty McFly in like 7 or 8 guesses. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/44 "2010-01-25T15:31:35Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I was pretty sure I could beat it with a famous Australian, and sure enough my first try (Banjo Paterson) stumped it (though it turns out he was in the database) > > Going up to 40 questions gives it room for up to a trillion distinct possibilities (I’m not sure how much the fuzziness of the probably/probably not options helps or hinders here) so I don’t think its performance is all that impressive yet. > > It would be interesting to see how it improves over time if it becomes popular and widely played though Got Don Bradman ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/45 "2010-01-25T15:54:39Z")
Gave me Michael Collins for De Valera but only needed one more question “does he wear glasses” to get Dev. Pretty impressive alright. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/46 "2010-01-25T16:05:19Z")
It failed to get **Cecil Adams** , guessing \*\*Steve Jobs \*\*and a couple of other off-the-wall people. I am surprised. Surprised, that is, that I am apparently the first Doper to have tried it (though the name was evidently already in the database). ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/47 "2010-01-25T16:07:21Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > It takes till question 18 to ask “male or female” and 22 to ask “real or fictional” - pretty fundamental questions. After having multiple confirmations that the character is an African politician it’s still asking questions like “Is your character a girl”,“Is your character Asian” and “Is your character linked with sports”. To be fair, “African politician” doesn’t rule those out. Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson from Liberia instantly comes to mine for a non-male black African politician. While I can’t think of any Asian-African ones off the top of my head (I admit I’m a geopolitics geek and only about 3 or 4 African politician names are coming to me (if you include north Africa)) I’m sure there must be one, heck Albert Fujimori was an Asian politician in South America, so anything’s possible, especially in a continent closer to Asia than S. America is. Likewise for “linked with sports”, it’s completely within the realm of possibility for an ex-football/basketball/sport-du-jour-of-the-country star to be elected President. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/48 "2010-01-25T16:08:26Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#): > > It failed to get **Cecil Adams** , guessing \*\*Steve Jobs \*\*and a couple of other off-the-wall people. I am surprised. > > Surprised, that is, that I am apparently the first Doper to have tried it (though the name was evidently already in the database). Well, did you say that Cecil was a real person, or not? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/49 "2010-01-25T16:20:40Z")
It correctly guessed George Costanza, Tobias Funke, William Wallace, and the narrator from Fight Club. Stumped it on Tracy Partridge and William of Baskerville. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/50 "2010-01-25T17:29:23Z")
How do you find out how many questions? So far I’ve done Ryan Seacrest, and it got him relatively quickly. Got George R. R. Martin just as quickly. This is pretty awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/51 "2010-01-25T17:31:17Z")
Just figured out how to figure out how many questions. It got Henry DeTamble in 20. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/52 "2010-01-25T17:35:22Z")
Stumped it on Caitlin Upton (Miss Teen South Carolina), although she was in the database. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/53 "2010-01-25T17:36:35Z")
Beat it on the first try - Dr. Susan Solomon, Nobel laureate and one-time head of the science panel of the IPCC. ---
**Author:** ![otternell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecc23a/32.png) [@otternell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/otternell)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/54 "2010-01-25T17:38:02Z")
Totally missed Raymond Feist. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/55 "2010-01-25T17:38:13Z")
It got Sydney Carton so fast it scared me, but I stumped it with Beau Geste. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/56 "2010-01-25T17:50:44Z")
Right first time on these three: Eleanor Rigby, Ed 209, Willy Wonka And considering how many options had to be _I don’t know_ it got \*\*The Stig \*\*first go too. This has seriously dented this afternoon’s productivity 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/57 "2010-01-25T17:57:06Z")
> [@Mindfield](#): > > Utterly failed on Slartibartfast from Hitchhiker’s Guide, but it got Shaft in 14. It got Slartibartfast for me after one wrong guess and about ten more questions. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/58 "2010-01-25T18:07:55Z")
It gets really weird when you start with things in your life. 1. It guessed “Your ex” (after having asked “Have you ever slept with your character?” and _then_ asking something like “Does your character kill monsters?”) 2. There’s a chick at work I think is a hottie. She’s a translator. It guessed “The girl you want”. But one of the questions was “Did your character ever translate foreign texts?” That was FREAKY. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/59 "2010-01-25T18:12:46Z")
I beat one of those Q20 games by picking “quark.” Since this one was limited to people, I picked Quark from DS9. It did get it, though it took 19 questions. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308/60 "2010-01-25T18:17:07Z")
I’m not so impressed anymore. I thought I’d try a few semi-obscure musicians: Mike Portnoy - it got in in 20 questions. Neal Morse - stumped, though he was in the database. Fish - stumped, though he was in the database. Interestingly, its final guess was Peter Gabriel. Then I thought perhaps I was getting too obscure, so I tried Jon Anderson. Stumped it, though he was in the database. C’mon - it gets Portnoy, but not Anderson?! Oh yeah - on one of them, _after_ establishing that it was looking for a real person, one of the questions was “does your character have multiple heads?” WTF? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-singularity-is-near-internet-20-questions/526308.md?page=4)