> Alan Turing himself didn't propose "the Turing Test" as an actually meaningful test
It was the wording "can machines think" that Turing considered ambiguous due to varying opinions on how to define "think". He proposed the experiment specifically as a less ambigious replacement - I think it's entirely wrong to say that he did not intend it to be meaningful.
> He proposed the thought experiment specifically as a less ambigious replacement
Yes, Turing's issue with the question is really the same as mine: we don't really know what we mean when we say something or someone "can think". That means that the question cannot be answered because we don't know what the question is. "What is the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything?" ... "42".
What I'm saying is that Turing didn't propose the imitation game as a test for whether a machine can think at all. He proposed it in the hopes of redirecting the question to one that is both answerable and meaningful -- but it's a different question than "can a machine think?".
It was the wording "can machines think" that Turing considered ambiguous due to varying opinions on how to define "think". He proposed the experiment specifically as a less ambigious replacement - I think it's entirely wrong to say that he did not intend it to be meaningful.