http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm8iUjzgPTgWhy does this scare me ?
Through all the news items about revolutions, wars, crimes, disasters.....this one stands out for me.
No doubt in my mind, that this is another (small) step towards the ultimate robot/computer.....
For those who missed it:
This is a Supercomputer built by IBM that plays Jeopardy. It actually listens to the questions asked in real-time, analyzes it, judges it chances of getting the answer correct, decides if it will place a bet or not and if so give the answer.
It BLEW AWAY all human competition.
Even though it thought that Toronto is a US city (but I blame that on the fact that it was built be a US company

).
It is absolutely amazing....yes today this requires a zillion processors and 16 TB (it is NOT connected to the internet) but I can see this inside of your pocket with 15 years or so.....