Categories
-Updates 1.3 Computers Today: A Brief Taxonomy 15.4 Pattern Recognition: Making Sense of the World 15.5 Question-Answering Machines 7.5 Inventing the Future: Embedded Intelligence and Ubiquitous Computing

Are You Ready for a Face Phone?

google_glass_snl_parodyWhen Apple released the iPhone, the world changed. People were carrying powerful computers in their pockets and purses. Developers released a bevy of creative apps to harness that always-available computing power. Today it’s hard to imagine a world without smart phones. Could Google Glass, the wear-on-your-face computer from Google, be the beginning of the next revolution in personal computing? This short NPR story explains how early adopters plan to use their prototype high-tech specs.
npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/04/17/177557810/Seeing-The-World-Through-Google-Colored-Glasses
Of course, not everyone views Google Glass through such rose-colored lenses. This Saturday Night Live skit mocks the idea that Google Glass can be used discreetly; other detractors question our need to become even more dependent on our technology.
mashable.com/2013/05/05/snl-google-glass-parody/

Categories
-Cross Currents 10.2 Computer Security: Reducing Risks 15.1 Thinking About Thinking Machines 15.5 Question-Answering Machines

The Man Who Lost his Jeopardy Title to a Computer

What’s it like to be the world Jeopardy champion and lose to a computer? Ken Jennings can tell you, and he does in this engaging TED talk. From his unique perspective, he suggests that we can—and must—make a choice about the kind of future we want to have. Which world do you want to live in?
 
More about Watson:

Categories
-Context 11.1 Where Computers Work 15.5 Question-Answering Machines 7.3 Database Trends

Watson Isn’t Just Playing Games Anymore

IBM’s Watson, the famous artificial-intelligence system that became a quiz show champ, is now poised to transform the fields of medicine, finance, education, and more. In some ways Watson is an industrial-strength version of Siri, the personal assistant built into iPhones. Is Watson leading us into a whole new era of cognitive computing? This fascinating Fast Company article puts Watson in the context of today’s data-driven world and speculates on a future that’s much bigger than talking smart phones.
fastcompany.com/3001739/ibms-watson-learning-its-way-saving-lives

Categories
-Inventing the Future 1.7 Inventing the Future: Tomorrow Never Knows 15.1 Thinking About Thinking Machines 15.5 Question-Answering Machines

SciFi Invents the Future

Many of our biggest technological breakthroughs have their roots in science fiction. This Wired piece, and the book that inspired it, explores the SciFi/Tech link with several real-world examples. What futuristic ideas are likely to graduate into everyday tech over the next decade?

Categories
-Updates 15.2 Natural-Language Communication 15.4 Pattern Recognition: Making Sense of the World

Translation for—and by—Everybody

While you’re learning a language you can help with the world’s biggest translation project. This Wired article explains how Duolingo hopes to translate the whole Internet into a resource without language barriers.
wired.com/business/2012/09/translate-the-web

Categories
-Cross Currents 10.4 Security and Reliability 15.6 The Robot Revolution

Another Take on the Classic Sci-Fi Plot

forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2012/06/14/cyber-security-and-the-rise-of-the-silicon-based-life-form
If we think of digital technology as another life form, how does that change the way we think about, and interact with, that technology? This Forbes editorial suggests that it might improve the way we handle computer security.

Categories
-Inventing the Future 11.7 The High-Tech Home 15.6 The Robot Revolution 4.4 The User Interface: The Human-Machine Connection

The Robot in Your Future Home

Personal robots are coming. This fascinating NPR story gives an audio peek inside the labs that are working hard to bring robots to everyday people.
wbur.org/npr/155278207/you-know-you-want-one-personal-robots-not-ready-for-you-yet

Categories
-Context 15.0 Alan Turing, Military Intelligence, and Intelligent Machines

Turing in 20

http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2012/mar/19/turing-problem/
It’s hard to overstate the importance of Alan Turing. The man who invented artificial intelligence before computers existed also created a machine that helped the Allies win World War II, saving thousands of innocent lives from the scourges of war and totalitarianism. But instead of being honored for his monumental achievements, Turing was persecuted and driven to suicide because his private life didn’t conform to British norms. This moving 20-minute Radiolab podcast shines a light on Turing and examines the central question of his work.

Categories
-Updates 10.3 Security, Privacy, Freedom, and Ethics 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 15.6 The Robot Revolution

Will You Be Living in a Drone Zone?

npr.org/2012/03/12/148293470/drones-over-america-what-can-they-see
Computer-piloted drones have become part of life—and death—in war zones. But , according to John Villasenor, we’ll soon be seeing drones in American skies performing non-military tasks. As he explains in this NPR Fresh Air interview, a flurry of ethical, social, legal, and political questions will arrive with those drones.

Categories
-Context 15.2 Natural-Language Communication 15.4 Pattern Recognition: Making Sense of the World 8.5 Interpersonal Computing: From Communication to Communities

Giving Ten Seconds to World Literacy (Without Knowing It)

www.ted.com/talks/luis_von_ahn_massive_scale_online_collaboration.html
If you use the web, you’re almost certainly part of a global team that’s digitizing the world’s books, one word at a time. How are you helping digitize one hundred million words each day? In this entertaining, mind-expanding TED talk, Luis von Ahn explains how a group of researchers created reCAPTCHA and turned one of the web’s big time-wasters into a crowdsourcing project involving ten percent of the world’s population. He also describes an emerging project to apply the same visionary approach to language translation.