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
-Updates 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 15.5 Question-Answering Machines

What Is Watson?

This year Watson, an IBM computer, beat two champions on TV’s Jeopardy. This PBS Nova program goes behind the scenes and explains how Watson’s creators pulled it off.

Categories
-Cross Currents 1.0 Creating Communities on the Living Web 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 11.2 Technology and Job Quality 12.1 Systems and Organizations 8.5 Interpersonal Computing: From Communication to Communities

Is There a Friend Limit?

In an age when “friend” is a verb, many of us have hundreds of social-network friends. But Oxford Anthropologist Robin Dunbar’s research suggests that we’re wired to max out our meaningful relationships at about 150. This NPR story has details. Can technology help us break Dunbar’s limit, and is that a worthwhile goal?
Categories
-Multimedia 15.0 Alan Turing, Military Intelligence, and Intelligent Machines 15.1 Thinking About Thinking Machines 15.2 Natural-Language Communication 15.5 Question-Answering Machines 15.6 The Robot Revolution 4.4 The User Interface: The Human-Machine Connection 4.7 Inventing the Future: Tomorrow's User Interfaces I 5.4 Beyond the Printed Page 8.5 Interpersonal Computing: From Communication to Communities 9.3 Internet Issues: Ethical and Political Dilemmas

Conversations with Robots

Be careful–you may be falling in love with a software robot. This episode of Radiolab—NPR’s clever and entertaining broadcast/podcast—explores many ways people talk to machines, including those alluring bots that populate online dating sites. Eliza, Furbie, Clever Bot, Bina—they’re all talking to us, and we’re listening. Radiolab puts it all in perspective in this fascinating program.

Categories
-Multimedia 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 8.7 Social Networks Chapter 1 Exploring Our Digital Planet Chapter 10 Computer Security and Risks Chapter 8 Networking and Digital Communication Chapter 9 The Evolving Internet

Beware of Online Filter Bubbles—A TED Talk by Eli Pariser

Two people sitting next to each other in a coffee house can get wildly different results from the same Google search. Many Facebook users see only posts from friends who agree with them because Facebook is hiding posts from other friends. These two sites, and many others, use filtering software to personalize our Web experience. In this short, thought-provoking talk, Eli Pariser said this software is rapidly creating a world in which “the Internet is showing us what it thinks we want to see, but not necessarily what we need to see.”

[ted id=1091]