Twenty questions on the web

Via the Steve Jackson Games Daily Illuminator, it’s the online twenty questions game.

At my fourth try, I am happy to say that I really flummoxed it with a Parliament building.

Is it animal, vegetable, mineral, other or unknown? Other
Is it small? No
Can you buy it a store? No
Is it heavier than a pound of butter? Yes
Does it use electricity? Yes
Was it used over 100 years ago? Yes
Would you use it in the dark? Irrelevent (It wouldn’t be dark inside, after all.)
Would you use it daily? Yes
Is it comforting? Maybe (Some people like being MPs)
Does a basketball player use it? Rarely (A rather odd question to ask, that one.)
Do you know any songs about it? Yes (Mostly about Guy Fawke’s, but hey…)
Do most people use this daily? No
Can you use it with your friends? Rarely
Does it have a hard outer shell? Yes (It’s a building, after all…)
Does it provide protection? Sometimes
Is it made of metal? Partly
Can it make a sound? Irrelevent
Is it dangerous? Maybe (They can make dumb laws occasionally)
Is it a prison? No (Close, but no cigar)
Is it something you can purchase? No (Not quite the same as question 3, admittedly, but surprising for it to go back to this tack here.)
Is it usually colourful? Rarely ([_They decorate these things occasionally, or have women in them ;-) _])
Does it come in different colours? No
Do you open and close it? Yes (Tongue in cheek - the Queen does indeed preside over the opening of Parliament)
Can you live in it? Rarely (If you were determined enough, I suppose)
Can you put something into it? Yes (Namely, people.)
Does it contain a liquid? Sometimes (That would be the Members’ bars…)
Can you switch it on and off? No
Is it a library? No (Wrong again, but still close)
Is it a battleship? No (What? Where did that one come from?)

And then it gave up, and didn’t let me tell it what it was I was thinking of. Bizarre.

But still worth playing with. Go on, it’s almost Friday.

(UPDATE): Someone’s been messing with the poor website, or, alternatively, there are things that it just doesn’t get. Consider some of the things that it knows about a chess set:

Does it grow over time? I say Probably. (What? How does that follow?)
Can you buy it? I say No. (How else would you get one?)
Can it change size? I say Yes. (Er…)
Does it have physical substance? I say Doubtful. (This one baffles me as well.)
Can it be used to talk to others? I say Yes. (Go on, show me how.)
Is it used to calculate? I say Yes. (Only, allegorically, powers of 2, though.)

Early days neural nets are just weird.