Turing test, the conversation is conducted via keyboards and the challenge for the AI community is to produce a computer that can give answers that are indistinguishable from those produced by a real human. Given that such interactions are by their very nature open-ended and context-dependent Collins argues that only a fully socialised intelligence will be able to respond appropriately to any of the new and potentially unknown sentences directed to it. Although the argument was not made in these terms at the time, the concept of interactional expertise is important here. In the original critique of AI research, Collins distinguished between behaviour-specific action (capable of being encoded and reproduced by machines) and natural action (what humans do the rest of the time and which machines cannot reproduce). In a later work with Martin Kusch, this same distinction was re-cast as the distinction as mimeomorphic action (action performed in the same way each time and thus amenable to mechanical reproduction) and polimorphic action (actions that depend on context and local convention for their correct interpretation and continuation and thus not reproducible by machines, however sophisticated). The link between these arguments, the embodiment debate and the idea of interactional expertise is the importance of natural language. If interactional expertise exists then it suggests that people who cannot perform a particular task or skill – and who therefore cannot have the embodied expertise associated with it – can still talk about that skill as if they did possess the embodied skills. Interactional expertise thus raises a key question about the “amount” of embodiment that is needed for expertise to be transferred. For proponents of the embodiment thesis, quite a lot of embodiment is needed as the expertise resides in the relative position, movement and feel of the body. From the perspective of interactional expertise much less embodiment is needed and, taken to its logical minimum, perhaps only the ability to hear and speak are needed. Interactional expertise and practical action The idea of interactional expertise also has many practical applications and accounts for many everyday practices and activities. The implication of interactional expertise is to legitimate commentary and opinion from individuals outside a group of contributory expertise without necessarily saying that all opinions and views are equally valid. Examples of circumstances in which some degree of interactional expertise would be important include: The role of peer review in science Scientific papers and