> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.philsimon.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# The Fascinating Story Behind Captcha
- URL: https://www.philsimon.com/the-fascinating-story-behind-captcha/
- Published: 2012-03-14T11:50:15.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-05T00:33:58.000Z
- Description: I had no idea that the history of this little doohickey was so interesting.
- Author: Phil Simon
- Tags: Collaboration, Technology, Trends, Innovation, Internet

While there are exceptions, most [TED](https://www.ted.com/?ref=philsimon.com) talks are downright inspiring and they are sure as hell informative. Check out the one below on using [captcha](https://www.captcha.net/?ref=philsimon.com) to digitize books and translate Wikipedia into different languages, overcoming significant and seemingly insurmountable problems in the process.

In a word, *wow*.

As an aside, I never knew that captcha stands for "Completely Automated Public [Turing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan%5FTuring?ref=philsimon.com) test to tell Computers and Humans Apart." If it took 100,000 people to put a man on the moon, what can 750,000,000 people do?