The Watson Jeopardy Challenge...

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Comments Welcome Below...

[Big Dan]

I did'nt see the show, But I was watching Conan and he had a spoof on it and showed a small clip of the show. It looked interesting, kind of wish I could have seen the whole show.

[48Rob]

No, never heard of it until now.

Rob

[godskid]

No, I'm not watching it, but as a computer geek I'm interested in the outcome! I've done PhD work in Artificial Intelligence, so I am duly impressed with how much Watson can understand. That's not easy to program!

But I still hope the humans win.

[planovet]

Is there a button for "I don't care"?

[Gary and Cheri]

It's an interesting concept.

Morgan Freeman had a new series on television this year called "Through the Wormhole" and the first show attempted to answer the question "Is there a Creator?". One of the points that was made is that our current super computers have achieved roughly the same computing capacity as a human being is capable of. The show then asked that if we could program this computer so that if it is placed in a box and a human is placed in an identical box and we then ask each box questions; If we can not tell which box contains the human and which box contains the computer, have we created life?

If the answer is yes, then the inference is that we are Gods.

The scary thing is that they also pointed out that roughly every year and a half our computers double their abilities. I hope "Hal" is not reading this.

Gary

[Creamcracker]

It's an interesting concept.

Morgan Freeman had a new series on television this year called "Through the Wormhole" and the first show attempted to answer the question "Is there a Creator?". One of the points that was made is that our current super computers have achieved roughly the same computing capacity as a human being is capable of. The show then asked that if we could program this computer so that if it is placed in a box and a human is placed in an identical box and we then ask each box questions; If we can not tell which box contains the human and which box contains the computer, have we created life?

If the answer is yes, then the inference is that we are Gods.

The scary thing is that they also pointed out that roughly every year and a half our computers double their abilities. I hope "Hal" is not reading this.

Gary

Asking question and having difficulty determining which is the computer and which is the human does not make us gods. There's an all important 'thing' called "the soul"....

[godskid]

SO then - we should be asking the other box questions about its soul. And feelings. And desires, etc. Like "Do you want a hot fudge sundae after the match?" If it prefers oil it probably is the machine.

[atahoekid]

Watson is kicking butt on the other two guys. It is intelligent but it is not capable of reason like humans. So I guess that makes us superior, but I still feel stupid compared to the computer It's been interesting to watch.

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Watson kicked ass...
What fascinates me is how Watson can be used for other things, take the medical field for example, like asking for a second opinion...

[Creamcracker]

Watson kicked ass...
What fascinates me is how Watson can be used for other things, take the medical field for example, like asking for a second opinion...

But it's responses are only as good as the information that it has been fed. Clearly the last three evenings showed that it can rationalize and give an answer based upon the best odds...however at this stage it has no intuition.....being intuitive and "thinking outside the box" is a very big step......
Philip

[SmokeyBob]

I thought Watson was a soccer ball.

[Creamcracker]

I thought Watson was a soccer ball.

Isn't that "elementary?"
Philip

[absolutsnwbrdr]

just saw this short comic strip on facebook...

http://www.thehighdefinite.com/wp-conte ... biased.jpg

I didnt post it as an image because theres some colorful language

[The Teardrop Nanny]

I thought Watson was a soccer ball.

Silly... That was Wilson.