Blockhead! is a game invented in 1952 by Gerard and Alice D'Arcey in San Jose, California. Consisting of 20 brightly colored blocks of varying shapes, the idea of the game is to add blocks to a tower without having it collapse on your turn.
The first player sets one of the blocks on a flat wooden base; this is the only block allowed to touch the base. Each player then takes turns adding a single block until the tower collapses. The player that knocks over the tower on their turn loses a point. Once a player loses 3 points, he is eliminated from the game. The last player remaining wins.
History
The game was first published by G.W. D'Arcey in 1952. In 1954 Saalfield Publishing Company released the game consisting of 25 blocks. The design of the blocks has remained consistent through each edition, the only change being modifying the yellow “double hump” to be more heart shaped. Currently, the game is produced by Pressman Toy Corp. Pressman Toy Corporation is a toy manufacturer based in Piscataway, New Jersey which was founded in 1922 by Jack Pressman. ...
Blockhead! was voted into Games Magazine's Hall of Fame and appears on the GAMES 100 list. [1] The Parker Brothers logo is recognized throughout the world. ... GAMES Magazine (ISSN 0199-9788) is a United States-based magazine devoted to games and puzzles, and is published by GAMES Publications, a division of Kappa Publishing Group. ... GAMES Magazine is a United States-based magazine devoted to games and puzzles, and is published by GAMES Publications, a division of Kappa Publishing Group. ...
References
Saalfield Publishing Company (1969). 15th Anniversary Celebration for Blockhead (advertisement). Press release.
Blockhead is a "stupid" machine that stores all possible conversations within some limited duration and, thus, passes the Turing Test.
To maintain otherwise seems to me to be a result of arbitrary algorithmic chauvinism or finding consciousness and intelligence to be an essence that exists apart from functionthe same intuition that allows philosophers to take zombie arguments seriously and succumb to the quagmire of privileged access.
In a way, talk of Brutes and Blockheads just misses the point of the Turing test, which is to dissociate the methods, substrate and appearance of the candidate system from the difference that makes a difference: behavior.
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