The Machines Will Rise

Last night, Watson debuted on Jeopardy. And I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. I had been hearing about Watson for weeks (months?) now. I watch Jeopardy religiously, almost every weeknight and well...quite frankly Watson was jammed down our throats on a nightly basis by Alex Trebek.

Yes. I was very curious. They were going to take Jeopardy's two best players in Jeopardy history and pit them against Watson. A computer. A machine. A device that recognizes the human language, breaks it down, understands it, pieces it together, and then respond. It's not simple commands that Watson is responding to. He answers questions. Trivial questions. Or rather he phrases the answer in the form of a question....you know...Jeopardy style.

But there's more to Watson than that. After watching last night's episode, you see that there is so much more to it. He (why couldn't Watson be a she???) is represented by a cute little Avatar on an oversized iPad looking thing. Cute, but downright eerie as it rings in and answers the questions.


I read up on Watson. He wasn't just designed to be a warehouse of useless, trivial information. He's just the beginning. They say that one day Watson and his....offspring? Watson and his offspring will be able to take phone calls for companies and answer questions for the common customer. Imagine calling with medical questions,or troubleshooting your cable television and talking to a Watson. It will understand your questions, compute them quickly, and then give you the information you want.

The next time your wireless service goes down, you will no longer be talking to some human who was outsourced on the other side of the globe. You might be talking to a Watson.

And this scares the crap out of me. Let's face it. Sarah Connor predicted this!!

First of all, if Watson does work out and does get improved upon and programmed to perform specific customer service jobs, that means bad news for the job market. And why stop at customer service? Soon, Military Men/Women will be asking Watson for advice on war and peace. Religions will worship what Watson's insight might be. The world will be lead by Watsons.

Or what if they are humanized...programmed to "love", be a member of the family? Replace children, pets, parents, nannies, and so on. Very eerie. Just how far are we trying to go?

It's been predicted. Like in AI: Artificial Intelligence.


And of course....Terminator. Watson may be a cute oversized iPadish looking thing for now. But years from now?

You better pray there's a John Connor to stop the madness.