The Yuck Factor
The Yuck Factor is best explained with an example. Suppose you pull off a panel to begin working on some network equipment, and you find a dead rodent. That would be a YF = 7. Other discoveries like multiple rodents – or their time of death – might raise the number. If on the other […]
Introducing ChatGPT
The first chatbot was ELIZA, created in 1966 by computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT. ELIZA was designed to simulate a psychotherapist in natural language conversations and was based on pattern matching and substitution methods. ELIZA was designed to simulate a psychotherapist as a way to demonstrate the power of computer language processing. Joseph Weizenbaum […]
A Random Walk with AI
My wife and I recently joined some of the last homeowners to contribute to the $11 billion robot vacuum industry. Since I am usually the one who does the vacuuming, I liked the idea of completing this chore with the simple push of a button. It was an exciting day when I took our new […]
For Those Who Think Machines Think They Can Think
Thinking has always been an ethereal thing. It is the most private of human activities, and while the expression “I know what you’re thinking” is part of the lingua culturae, it is a bold-faced lie. Notwithstanding crypto-keys and blockchains, the only truly protected storage place in the universe – at least for now – is […]
How Does That Make You Feel?
When someone asks you if robots are taking over our jobs, there are only two possible answers: (1) Yes and (2) I don’t know. If you chose (2), then your job will probably be one of the first to go. If in fact a robot does replace your job, you will not be alone; each […]
U, Robot
Artificial people are not a new thing. To be clear, I am not talking about non-human legal entities, nor do I mean the sort of folk you meet at cocktail parties who can talk for hours without saying anything. Here I refer only to people whose creators are other technically skilled people. This notion of […]
Does Not Compute!
Around the age of one year, the average human will stand on two legs and start walking. For some reason, parents think this is a good thing, forgetting how convenient it was to strap them into a car-seat-carrier and have total control over their whereabouts. Of the three primary childhood milestones – walking, talking and […]
Fly Catcher
Reading about the latest developments in technology can really make me feel like an old fart. Consider fly swatters. For most of my life, if there was a fly that was annoying you, you rolled up a newspaper or magazine, crept up on the little Musca domestica Linnaeus, and quickly swatted it into oblivion. Those […]
Robots Are Not What You Think
Most of us associate the word “robot” with some modern high-tech contraption but the idea of a mechanical human actually goes back a very long time. People are quirky, after all, and the idea of having even some of the functionality minus the drama has always been appealing. The very definition of the word robot […]
PancakeBot to the Rescue
One of the most important skills you must have in order to be a good parent has nothing to do with diapers or shoelaces; we’re talking about pancakes here. When our kids were growing up, it was absolutely essential that I produce “Mickey Mouse” pancakes. The taste, color and texture were secondary; the most important […]
