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18-Jun-10 News -- IBM's Watson computer will be a Jeopardy contestant

** 18-Jun-10 News -- IBM's Watson computer will be a Jeopardy contestant
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... 18#e100618

Contents:
"IBM's Watson computer is a giant step towards the Singularity"
"Tony Blair: 'We will not allow' Iran to acquire nuclear weapons"
"European Commission President Barroso: Democracy in Europe could 'collapse'"
"Additional links"
Israel eases Gaza Strip blockade
EU and Spanish officials deny that Spain is near a banking crisis
Growing number of Thailand's "red shirt" protestors are being arrested
U.N. says that food prices will rise 40% over the next decade
US Justice Department arrest hundreds in mortgage fraud crackdown
New pill can restore a depressed female sex drive
Verizon Wireless is finding ways to charge more
Obama's oil speech is being panned by liberals
Karl Rove: More bad news about ObamaCare
The birth of a bomb: A history of Iran's nuclear program.

I was searching for a phrase yesterday, and could not think of it. The phrase was "idiot savant". If we creat five dozen systems, each an idiot savant on a single subject, then place them as slaves to yet another machine that knows how to formulate queries, do we create a general purpose genius? I don't know the answer to that one.

OLD1953 wrote: > I was searching for a phrase yesterday, and could not think of
> it. The phrase was "idiot savant". If we creat five dozen systems,
> each an idiot savant on a single subject, then place them as
> slaves to yet another machine that knows how to formulate queries,
> do we create a general purpose genius? I don't know the answer to
> that one.

It's true that IBM's Watson could be called an "idiot savant" today,
but that's today.

As computers get more and more powerful, then they'll be able to
implement more and more sophisticated brute force algorithms,
including the "knowledge bits" algorithm that I described.

** Chapter 7 - The Singularity
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... book2.next

Once this capability becomes fully available, then these computers
will be just as intelligent and creative as humans are.

John

The post on A.I. today and the one a couple of days ago mentioning a robot nurse reminded me of "Moon", a recent movie wherein the primary supporting character is a robot, Gerty, who handles most of the routine functions at a lunar He3 mine. Its worth a look.