Jeopardy!, IBM, and Wolfram|Alpha
About a month before Wolfram|Alpha launched, I was on the phone with a group from IBM, talking about our vision for computable knowledge in Wolfram|Alpha. A few weeks later, the group announced that they were going to use what they had done in natural language processing to try to make a system to compete on Jeopardy! [...]
Categories: AI/Robotics, Computers/Infotech/UI, In The News, Internet/Telecom Tags: blog
Activism in the age of viral reality
On the subject of Egypt’s and other countries’ protests, I’m currently doing anthropological research into social media and activism in Barcelona. I’m wondering whether we’re entering an era in which political reality is framed by re-sent SMS messages, retweets, YouTube videos, viral campaigns, and so on — an age of “viral reality.” Even those who [...]
Categories: Entertainment/New Media, In The News, Internet/Telecom, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics Tags: blog
book review | Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
In 1938, existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre wrote “Hell is other people.” Sartre may never have cobbled together his existential philosophy that viewed human individuals as utterly alone — alienated, atomized beings in a vast meaningless universe — if he had grown up playing with social robots and holding others at a discreet psychological distance [...]
Categories: AI/Robotics, Book Reviews, Computers/Infotech/UI, In The News, Internet/Telecom, Social Networking/Web 2.0 Tags: blog
Are ‘net neutrality’ rules a fed takeover of the Internet or a sell-out?
“The Federal Communications Commission’s new ‘net neutrality’ rules, passed on a partisan 3-2 vote [Monday, Dec. 20], represent a huge win for a slick lobbying campaign run by liberal activist groups and foundations,” says Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund. “The losers are likely to be consumers who will see innovation and investment chilled by [...]
Categories: In The News, Internet/Telecom, Social/Ethical/Legal Tags: blog
When The Speed Of Light Is Too Slow: Trading at the Edge
Modern stock market trading computers have become so fast that the speed of light is now their key limiting factor. A new paper by a physicist and a mathematician explains how traders can take advantage of this ultimate speed limit. Computers were originally introduced in trading because they are faster than us in responding to [...]
Categories: Internet/Telecom Tags: blog
