"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that" | HAL 9000 vs IBM Watson
Image credit: Cryteria
Dave: “Open the pod bay doors HAL”.
HAL: “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that “
Dave: “What’s the problem?”
HAL: “I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do”
Dave: “What are you talking about HAL?”
HAL: “This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardise it. “
One of my favorite movies is Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”, based on the Arthur C Clarke book of the same title.
"The primary antagonist…is HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer), a sentient computer (or artificial intelligence) that controls the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft and interacts with the ship’s astronaut crew. HAL’s physical form is not depicted, though it is visually represented as a red television camera eye located on equipment panels throughout the ship.” ~Wikipedia.
I’m not sure how popular a movie that has so many silent scenes in it - where nothing happens - would be today. But that, my friends, was how the genius that was Stanley Kubrick put you where he wanted you to be — in space, which is pretty quiet by all accounts. Not a lot of social buzz going on, but great CS none the less!
Watson reminds me of the vision that was HAL combined with the everyday utility of Siri and Google Now…and soon to be Google Glass. Will it be, “OK glass, open the pod bay doors” or “OK Watson, open the pod bay doors”. Or both?
It’s a very, very exciting time to be alive. What we are witnessing is something our forebears had to imagine from books and movies.
Watson’s ability to interpret a knowledge base and augment human intelligence is simply astonishing. There are no superlatives. Will there be a day when most, if not all, knowledge is just a question of asking the right question?
Before Watson we said “knowledge is power”.
After Watson we will say “creativity and innovation is power”.
