Artificial Intelligence

Do you think you can tell whether you are chatting with a person or a computer? See: Chatbot Bids to Fool Humans. The chatbot itself is here.  ¶ 11:47 AM

 

Around the Weblogs

Don't miss Zach's story of his great-grandfather, who was a mechanical engineer without school training.
Trey has some thoughts about how pervasive technology is.
Brittany reflects on alarm clocks. Having a husband who regularly sleeps through his alarm I would suggest that inventors get to work on better alarm clocks.
Chris argues that ethics are simple.  ¶ 7:41 AM

 

Attitudes Towards Technology

"We want technology to make our lives easier" That is the kind of generalization that is easy to write, but if you think about it, I think you have to conclude it isn't always true. We don't want our lives to be easier in all respects, and what we value as "easier" varies. It is difficult to define attitudes and that makes it very difficult to draw worthwhile generalizations about attitudes towards technology. Yet clearly different societies have different attitudes towards technology and what it can do for us. Why are cell phones more popular in Europe than in the United States? Can you think of examples where attitudes towards technology have made a difference?  ¶ 10:03 AM

 

hacking robots

What could you program a robot floor cleaner to do instead? Or a robot pet? I found these links at Relevant History.
  ¶ 5:59 AM

 

environmentalism, politics, and consumerism

Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced he is going to retrofit his Hummer to run on hydrogen. Is there something wrong with this picture?  ¶ 7:49 AM

 

A few blogs to check out

(see links to the right)
Zach Ashton has some interesting thoughts on where do you expect to be 30 years from now?
Brittany Knicks is brave enough to write about being a woman engineer.
Kyle Conger writes about whether we are becoming slaves to technology.
  ¶ 8:04 AM