Turing presented his new offering in the form of a thought experiment, based on a popular Victorian parlor game. A man and a woman hide, and a judge is asked to determine which is which by relying only on the texts of notes passed back and forth. Turing replaced the woman with a computer. Can the judge tell which is the man? If not, is the computer conscious? Intelligent? Does it deserve equal rights? It's impossible for us to know what role the torture Turing was enduring at the time played in his formulation of the test. But it is undeniable that one of the key figures in the defeat of fascism was destroyed, by our side, after the war, because he was gay. No wonder his imagination pondered the rights of strange creatures.

Internet2 visiting scholar (1997–2001)
From 1997 to 2001 Lanier was the Chief Scientist of Advanced Network and Services which contained the Engineering Office of Internet2 and served as the Lead Scientist of the National Tele-immersion Initiative a coalition of research universities studying advanced applications for Internet2. Memberships
Lanier has served on numerous advisory boards including the Board of Councilors of the University of Southern California Medical Media Systems (a medical visualization spin-off company associated with Dartmouth College) Microdisplay Corporation and NY3D (developers of auto stereo displays). July 28–30 1992.

A pioneer in the field of VR Lanier and Thomas G. the first company to sell VR goggles and gloves. Lanier is also known as a composer of classical music and a collector of rare instruments; his acoustic album Instruments of Change (1994) features Asian wind and string instruments such as the khene mouth organ the suling flute and the sitar-like esraj.