Watson Def. Human

by rrusczyk, Feb 17, 2011, 2:18 PM

All this ruminating over Watson whipping us mere humans reminds me of this excellent Economist article about Deep Blue running down Kasparov (I went to one of those matches, which was surprisingly entertaining, despite my not being much of a chess player). In wondering what it would mean for Deep Blue to beat Kasparov, the Economist writes:
Economist wrote:
If Mr Kasparov does win, despite the odds, it may give his audience a warm feeling. But, in truth, if Deep Blue were to beat him it would not really matter one jot. It would not show that Deep Blue was cleverer than any human alive. It would merely confirm something that has been known for a long time: that chess is trivial.

And now Watson's victory confirms something that has been known for even longer: trivia is trivial.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by rrusczyk, Feb 17, 2011, 2:19 PM

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8 Comments

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Woah. 2 entries in one morning. Neat!

The Watson match was pretty exciting, especially because it stayed with the humans, but then started beating them. I like how it was required to push the button with a robotic hand, as to lesson the advantage.

by bluecarneal, Feb 17, 2011, 2:23 PM

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Your argument makes me nervous, asymptotically. We can continue to use the forefront of computer intelligence as a lower bound on what is trivial, but we're already starting to get to the point where that backfires.

Sure, the "best move" in a chess match or the ability to decipher a pun correctly can be dismissed from the microscopic level, but do that painting thing from your post yesterday and it gets a little fuzzier. Under the same scrutiny normal people playing chess or Jeopardy seem even more simplistic.

I don't want to think that Kasparov's feints and deceptions were a sign of brilliance. All he did was, when he saw he was outmatched, switch to a different subroutine. You could move the target again and say that the computer wasn't able to keep up, but that won't buy humanity many more years of dominance.

Pointing out subtle things we did better just opens another door to our obsolescence.

by copeland, Feb 18, 2011, 12:26 AM

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Oh, don't get me wrong, I think our days are numbered, though I think that day is much farther off than singularitarians (however it is spelled) think. I just think that "chess" and "amassing facts" are not highly correlated to the cognitive skills that still separate us from the machines. But yeah, the time will come when it will be much much harder to defend the idea that there's really a ghost in the machine typing this sentence. But I didn't need Watson and Deep Blue to make me believe that. (I basically didn't buy a lot of the stuff in the chess article about what separates us from them -- I mostly bought the "chess is trivial" line.)

by rrusczyk, Feb 18, 2011, 2:30 AM

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For me it merely means that our days as pure flesh and blood creatures are numbered and that we should stop cling to all niceties of having pure animal physiology from the need to breath, eat, and sleep to the pleasure of death. There is no need for the human-machine confrontation (which, by the way, assumes the human attitudes toward the world on the part of thinking machines, the assumption that shows nothing but the usual human lack of imagination). Of course, if we rely upon the natural selection to make us develop faster than the computers, we'll lose quite soon but I see nothing wrong with either playing with genes, or making us half-silicon in principle. The only real obstacle is that we do not trust each other to the extent of paranoia.

by fedja, Feb 18, 2011, 5:48 AM

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I pretty much agree with that, though I think the number of those days is a lot larger than most futurists claim. I believe the problems in achieving the steps that would make these transformational changes are getting harder faster than we're getting smarter.

by rrusczyk, Feb 18, 2011, 2:12 PM

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Perhaps it just proves that the skills required for humans to be extremely proficient at chess, etc. are more easily acquired by machines. However, this does bode strangely for our future.

by QuantumTiger, Feb 19, 2011, 2:54 AM

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Chess trivial? My life just ended.

by BOGTRO, Apr 2, 2011, 12:57 AM

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Hm... they're similar that they're both revolutions in technology and defeated humans. But chess is completely different from quiz shows- I lost to a computer that was rated 800 the other day.

by anonymous0, Apr 21, 2011, 6:54 PM

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On editing
Opened State Communities
More Going Greek
Three More Books Now Available
How smart were those ancient geometers?
Intermediate Level Geometry
First the spelling bee, then Westinghouse
MCrawford calls it like it is
Intro Counting Book available
Accepting PayPal
Two more local programs
USAMTS Extension
File Sharing
Upcoming Math Jam on Careers in Finance
More Progress
Titu & Zuming starting a summer camp
An Interesting Opportunity for Math Team Builders
Another Local Program
Reforming College on Slate
And Another . . .
Considering Changes to the Classroom
Good Day at the SDMC
California teachers convention
Zeitz 2nd edition
Counting book off to the printer
How will the books affect classes
Independent Study Overhaul
Book Progress
Vacation Pictures
Thoughts provoked by the book PayPal Wars
USAMTS Round 1
Organizing & Building AoPS
What Should Our School Be?
Blog for those building a math team
Everything but the cover
Getting in to MIT
Let's See if that Homothecy Sunk In
SDMC Overwhelmed
Yet Another Reason I Don't Watch TV
Vacation - Finally
Know Any Good Math Teachers?
What I Do Like in Math Texts
The Rich Get Richer - Stanford Math Circle
Getting the Message Board Back in Shape
Homothecy
What I Don't Like in Advanced Math Textbooks
How Do We Reach Them
Amusing Google search
Book size
Interesting Ideas in Math Education
Google sponsorship
At Mathcamp
Fund-raising - a success story
Where Does the Money Come From?
SDMC
WOOT
Pricing of our classes
Pricing books
Building a local culture
AoPS at the IMO
I stumped Reid Barton
99% Perspiration
My new hero
New AoPS Instructor
Most amazing thing I saw at 2005 ARML
MATHCOUNTS Voice Over Session: Best line of the day
More on Invariants
Introduction to Invariants
Getting spoiler in blogs
Parity for Beginners
A Quick Intro to Number Bases
Wow. It really worked
Top MATHCOUNTS Program in San Diego axed
Our students at MOP
My visit to ICAE
Building a Math Culture
Heroes at MATHCOUNTS
Some people out there get what we're doing here
Yay! First Draft Nearly Done. Why Am I Not Happy?
Olympiad test series musings
Interesting Math Blog
Do what you love, not what you think Harvard wants you to do
Learning through Teaching - An Example
Belated USAMO blogging
Tilings: Mixing Number Theory and Geometry
How do the 'smart' students do it?
Interesting picture
What Calculators Hath Wrought
At the NCTM Convention
Looking Forward to Nationals
AoPS may be growing!
Computer Problems and an Interesting Dinner
The Price of Mathematical Ignorance
CA State MATHCOUNTS
San Diego Math Circle Parents
Prepping for Northern CA State MATHCOUNTS
Our Book Project
Recursive Thinking
Differences in course types
Play
Burnout
MATHCOUNTS Chapter Update
MATHCOUNTS Chapter
Using symmetry
Using Expected Value to Solve Problems
Counting the Same Thing Two Different Ways
Another test
Testing
Evolution in the classroom
Women in Math & Science
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About Owner
  • Posts: 16194
  • Joined: Mar 28, 2003
Blog Stats
  • Blog created: Jan 28, 2005
  • Total entries: 940
  • Total visits: 3312595
  • Total comments: 3882
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