More on IBM and that Watson thing

[* Peter Bock]

Hi all:

Yesterday, Jack Mendelsohn brought to my attention an article entitled
"It's Not a Game" in the bimonthly soft-tech rag Technology Review,
which covers the domains of science, engineering, and technology, and
associated ethical issues (whew!). The article discusses IBM's
demonstration of their AI engine Watson on Jeopardy recently. Here is
the URL for the article:

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/37356

Those of you who are informed about AI, cognitive science, or
neuroscience, please do take a moment to read this article. I think
you will have something to say. If so, I am sure your comments will be
interesting to the rest of us, so please forward them to our MICgroup
and post them here!

Some of you may also be inclined to respond to the author of the
review, Jaron Lanier (whose bona fides can be found at the end of the
article), and I encourage you to do that, too. His webpage is at:

http://www.jaronlanier.com/

and his email appears to be:

he...@jaronlanier.com

If you do write to him, please share your message with us, just in
case he decides not to publish it. Be sure to cite your bona fides.
One good turn deserves another.

Cheers,

Peter

P.S. How many of you think cell phones hurt the brain?.... ;-)