|
|
|
|
| SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY |
|
|
|
Computer puts human supremacy in jeopardy Charging, the wireless way Prof Yash
Pal THIS UNIVERSE
Trends |
|
|
Computer puts human supremacy in jeopardy
There aren’t many quiz shows where the stakes are high for anyone but the participants but in the special episodes of ‘Jeopardy’ on American television this week, the hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money are very much an afterthought. The real prize: humanity’s continued supremacy in the ongoing struggle to preserve our status against computers. And, last night it was confirmed: man has been trumped by machine. For the human race it might be the moment to concede that even when it comes to the kind of questions that seem to require an intuitive sense of meaning, computers have us licked. Probably the only people truly delighted by the result will be staff at IBM, which made Watson. For three nights this week the little box — not so little because it is backed up off stage by large servers with 15 terabytes (about 15,000 GB) of RAM — has been the star guest in sitting rooms all over America. It is a clash of silicon versus synapses of a kind not since IBM’s Deep Blue took on Gary Kasparov at chess in 1997. Deep Blue won 14 years ago (although Kasparov had won against an earlier version of the machine) and Watson has not disappointed on Jeopardy!, a show that has been a staple on America’s primetime schedules for 47 years. For the occasion the producers brought in the two most successful human contestants ever, Ken Jennings, who had the longest winning streak on the show at 74, and Brad Rutter, who has won the most money from it — $3.2m. With a format that requires general knowledge on every imaginable topic with an answer in the form of a question (say, Q. Mount Everest A. What is the highest mountain in the world?), ‘Jeopardy’ would seem to present a particular challenge to a computer. A wide range of factual knowledge is abetted often by what one might call educated guesses. The very human facets of hunch and instinct are in order. It took a team of 25 computer scientists at IBM four years to come up with Watson. The notion that machines one day might be vested with artificial intelligence and begin to expand the kinds of tasks they can do fascinates us. Still, the computer has not had it all its own way. Recently, Watson bungled what some saw as a relatively easy question asking which “US city” has its largest airport “named for a Second World War hero; its second largest, for a Second World War battle”? The monotone voice of Watson should have asked “What is Chicago?” but instead said “What is Toronto?” The question said US so why did he come up with a Canadian one? But Watson did win the first round overall. “Humanity, do not despair just yet!” cried Alex Trebek, the host of ‘Jeopardy’, talking about the mistake. “Some people at IBM are taking this so seriously. They’re about to release excuses. They should say, ‘Watson made a mistake.’” In another facet the two human champions can grab a question by interrupting intuitively and buzzing to take the question whereas Watson will only buzz when it has an answer: speed versus certitude. Mr Rebek says: “It can never ring in too early and lock itself out. Last night and the night before the guys locked themselves out nine times by trying to anticipate.
— The Independent |
|
Charging, the wireless way Cell phones have changed the way we communicate in the last decade, and despite standards being developed to make chargers universal, there is always that same old issue: where to plug it in, and with what charger. The situation has gotten worse with the use of smart phones that drain their charge within a day. You need no cord, no plug-just a small case or receiver that is permanently affixed to your device. You come home or enter the office, set up to three devices on the mat and voila-after the required charge is achieved, Powermat shuts down and you’re good to go. “It’s an increasingly wireless world and we are more tied down with wired devices and finding the right charger,” says Beth Meyer, Vice President of global marketing. “Powermat gets rid of the tangle.” Meyer points out that Powermat can actually extend the battery of handheld devices and phones, which are more often than not overcharged. Powermat determines what charge to deliver and for how long. That will help prolong the battery’s lifespan, consume less energy and cut down on environmental greenhouse gases. The mat, which can be bought on the internet for around Rs 2700, is plugged into a power source, and using a digital “handshake,” charges the smart device or phone via a receiver or case attached to it. After launching Powermat to retail success in 2009, “we are going into the vision to build a truly wireless world,” Meyer says, noting that travellers should soon expect to see Powermat stations in airports. According to Meyer, the Powermat can theoretically be developed to charge anything from a cell phone to an electric car-the latter on a bigger mat, obviously. Maybe even one you park on. |
Constantly launching rockets carrying satellites into space is reducing Earth’s weight. Will it have any impact on Earth’s rotation or revolution? I am amused by your concern about the loss of mass that our planet might be suffering due to our space launches. Most of the mass of the fuel and other material expended in a space launch finally ends up on the Earth itself, though changed in form. The fraction that is lost to deep space is very small. But all this is miniscule compared to what we might be receiving in meteorite hits and settling of interplanetary dust. I do not mean to assert that the Earth is growing in mass because some gases like hydrogen and helium might be continuously draining out. I confess that I do not have figures on long-term change of the Earth’s mass, but I am sure that our space activities are not contributing to this figure in any significant manner. Readers wanting to ask Prof Yash Pal a question can e-mail him at
palyash.pal@gmail.com |
|
Trends
LONDON: People who don’t believe their pain medicine will work can actually reduce or even cancel out the effectiveness of the drug, and images of their brains show how they are doing it, scientists said. Researchers from Britain and Germany used brain scans to map how a person’s feelings and past experiences can influence the effectiveness of medicines, and found that a powerful painkilling drug with a true biological effect can appear not to be working if a patient has been primed to expect it to fail. Ariane rocket to supply International Space Station KOUROU, French Guiana: An unmanned Ariane rocket successfully launched from French Guiana to supply cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), space officials said. The modified Ariane launcher blasted off at 6.51 pm (2151 GMT) from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America carrying a 20 metric ton cargo vessel. Stress-blocking drug restores hair in bald mice CHICAGO: U.S. researchers studying the effects of stress on the gut may have stumbled on a chemical compound that stimulates hair growth. By blocking a stress-related hormone linked with hair loss, mutant mice that made too much of the hormone were able to re-grow hair they had lost, the team reported on Wednesday in the online journal PLO One. Scientists question U.S. anthrax attack evidence WASHINGTON: A panel of scientists on Tuesday cast doubt on FBI scientific evidence that a U.S. Army researcher, Bruce Ivins, committed a series of deadly anthrax attacks in 2001. A National Research Council committee report questioned the link between a flask of anthrax bacteria in Ivins’ laboratory in Maryland and the anthrax-laced letters that killed five people and sickened 17 others.
— Reuters |
|
|
Expectations cancel out benefit of pain drugs
The Israeli company Powermat (www.powermat.com) has developed a brilliant solution that allows you to charge your smart phone, iPod or handheld device simply by setting it down on a small high-tech charge pad.
