Turing reformulates the question, Can machines think?, in the terms of a game in which an interrogator questions two (invisible) entities in order to determine the gender of each [Turing, 1950]. The question becomes whether the interrogator will decide wrongly as often when one of the entities being questioned is a machine.
It is critical in this game that the answers be given as printed, as typewritten, rather than vocalized or written by hand. “The ideal arrangement is to have a teleprinter communicating between the two rooms.” The printed letters eliminate traces of gender. Typography furnishes the condition for machinic masquerade.