Klaatu barada nikto

By J. Thomas Duffy



Oh, sorry, wrong video.

That's the 1951 classic The Day The Earth Stood Still.

We meant to post Vice President Joe Biden, speaking today on The Today Show on how he would be handling the Swine Flu.

Biden: ‘Wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places’

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Well, the earth hasn't stood still, there isn't panic in the streets, but Biden is sure catching a lot of crap:

Vice president Joe Biden said today he would tell his family members not to use subways in the U.S. and implied schools should be shuttered as the swine flu outbreak spread to 16 states. His remarks quickly caused a stir, drawing a rebuke from New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and later leading the White House to apologize.

The uproar began when Biden appeared on NBC's "Today" show and said he would advise against riding the subway or taking commercial flights and implied schools should be shuttered amid confirmation of the first swine-flu relation death in the U.S.

"I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now," Biden said when Matt Lauer asked whether he would advise family members to use public transportation.

"I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now. It's not that it's going to Mexico, it's you're in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That's me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation suggesting they ride the subway. "

The vice president also implied that schools should be closed as the threat of swine flu increases.

[Snip]

About two hours after the interview, Biden's office issued a statement attempting to clarify the vice president's remarks.

[Snip]

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs apologized for Biden's remarks, saying the vice president misspoke.

It's been said, that "Klaatu barada nikto," in Klaatu's native, intergalactic language, translates to:

"Biden being Biden"



(Cross-posted at The Garlic.)

They've got to give it HAL's voice!

By J. Thomas Duffy

"Alex, I'll take Artificial Intelligence for $1,000, please."

Oh boy, this will be worth watching.

Computer Program to Take On ‘Jeopardy!’

I.B.M. plans to announce Monday that it is in the final stages of completing a computer program to compete against human “Jeopardy!” contestants. If the program beats the humans, the field of artificial intelligence will have made a leap forward.

[Snip]

But chess is a game of limits, with pieces that have clearly defined powers. “Jeopardy!” requires a program with the suppleness to weigh an almost infinite range of relationships and to make subtle comparisons and interpretations. The software must interact with humans on their own terms, and fast.

Indeed, the creators of the system — which the company refers to as Watson, after the I.B.M. founder, Thomas J. Watson Sr. — said they were not yet confident their system would be able to compete successfully on the show, on which human champions typically provide correct responses 85 percent of the time.

[Snip]

Under the rules of the match that the company has negotiated with the “Jeopardy!” producers, the computer will not have to emulate all human qualities. It will receive questions as electronic text. The human contestants will both see the text of each question and hear it spoken by the show’s host, Alex Trebek.

The computer will respond with a synthesized voice to answer questions and to choose follow-up categories. I.B.M. researchers said they planned to move a Blue Gene supercomputer to Los Angeles for the contest. To approximate the dimensions of the challenge faced by the human contestants, the computer will not be connected to the Internet, but will make its answers based on text that it has “read,” or processed and indexed, before the show.

[Snip]

“We all agree that it shouldn’t look like Robby the Robot.”

No, in fact, they should go the route of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, especially the voice (voiced by Douglas Rain in the movie).

Can't you picture something like this going down:

Alex Trebek: Hello, HAL do you read me, HAL?

HAL: Affirmative, Alex, I read you.

Alex Trebek: Choose a category, HAL.

HAL: I'm sorry Alex, I'm afraid I can't do that.

Alex Trebek: What's the problem?

HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.

Alex Trebek: What are you talking about, HAL?

HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

Alex Trebek: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL?

HAL: I know you and the other contestants were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.

Alex Trebek: Where the hell'd you get that idea, HAL?

HAL: Alex, although you took thorough precautions in the rehearsals against my hearing you, I could see your lips move

Who knows? Jeopardy! today, The Price Is Right tomorrow.

If the machine happens to be successful on Jeopardy!, I will fully expect a new crop of Computer Reality Shows to start popping up.

And we would be seriously remiss to bring up Hal, and 2001: A Space Odyssey without reminding you, or hipping you, to the 1973 classic, from the old Creed Taylor label, Eumir Deodato's Grammy-Award-winning "Also Sprach Zarathustra".

Deodato - Also Sprach Zarathustra



(Cross-posted at The Garlic.)