IBM Ups the Ante on Computer Domination of Humans with Watson Machine

By: Travis Harvey (Illinois State University)

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC3IryWr4c8&feature=PlayList&p=912B1C8870051194&playnext_from=PL&index=1[/youtube]

Its official, computers are finally taking over the world, well if IBM has their way they will. The geniuses over at IBM have been working on this project for the past three years… this is like a child to them, a child prodigy that’s amazing at Jeopardy. IBM began in 1997 with the Deep Blue computer system which beat the world’s best chess player, impressive but they knew they could do better and that’s where Watson comes in.

Watson, named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, was designed to become an adversary to the human mind. IBM has stated that Watson has the ability to understand and process the human language. This allows it to answer the tough questions from Jeopardy, also allowing it to successfully scare the hell out of me.

Seriously didn’t we learn anything from the Terminator movies? Computers should not have that much power I mean just take a look at Skynet from Terminator, there has been enough to fill four movies… FOUR! Don’t get me wrong I understand a movie is a movie, but when computers begin to be smart enough to answer Jeopardy questions, I think we need to take a step back and see just how far we want to go because pretty soon computers will be doing everything for us… oh wait, they pretty much do everything for us.

But wait, isn’t Watson just Google on steroids? Whatever the case IBM is on the verge of doing something great and, as creepy as it may be, this computer could probably help solve problems… or at least become the world’s next android phone. Speaking of Android phones, the Verizon Wireless Droid X just furthers my theory that computers are becoming too much, just take a look at the commercial below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTcye-v1rqo&feature=PlayList&p=912B1C8870051194&playnext_from=PL&index=0[/youtube]

Now please tell me your skin doesn’t crawl after watching that. It’s a great marketing tool, a phone so smart it’s like a human, but an eerie look at what could possibly become our future. Well, if computers do take over maybe they can make me one, then life would be a breeze. At least that would make me resent them less when they master humankind… I’m just saying.

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