I'll Ask the Questions

I enjoy watching Jeopardy. It is always a challenge to try to answer the question. It is satisfying to know the response or guess it from the clue given. With such a wide range of categories I can usually be confident with a least a few.
I see they are now advertising having a computer named Watson as a contestant. Watson is to compete against the two best players of all time. I am very interested in the result. IBM has developed this computer. You may recall they made one to play chess and it was successful against chess masters. The data base for Watson is enormous. The real challenge is getting Watson to understand the question. The computer will have to interpret what information is being asked for. Getting a machine to understand what is implied or inferred is truly remarkable.
Having grown up with computers it is fascinating to watch their development. Even though I make no claim about understanding how they work or why. The first ones I saw had those green screens with white lettering. You had to type in commands to achieve whatever. Then you could just click on an Icon and a program would start. My cell phone will respond to a voice command so I'm sure a computer will too given the right setup. I'm assuming that is what Watson will do. Star Trek come to life. I remember Mr. Scott the engineer addressing the ships computer," Computer, calculate radioactivity count for ion tube." And the computer would respond. In one episode Mr. Scott had to input using a keyboard and he described it as quaint. Perhaps our Grandkids will think the same.
I will be watching but with a certain amount of skepticism. I like to watch magicians too. I'm quite sure IBM does not want this experiment to fail. The results must be certain before the show begins. Until I get to ask the questions I will not be fully convinced. Still I think I may be watching a little bit of history in the making.
Something to talk about twenty years from now. I saw Watson on Jeopardy. Watched it on a television that still used a picture tube too.