getting the computer to guess
But my passion in code, is about having the computer guess.
If I have 50 thousand documents, which are ‘good’ and which are ‘bad’ ?
I believe that a computer can not make an authoritative decision about a document being good or bad.
However, a computer can ‘suggest’, one way or the other.
As a coder, I see people grossly overestimate what computers can do- And also icredibly underestimate what the human being is doing when they make decisions about a piece of information.
Human beings make an incredible ammount of assumptions and descisions to be able to carry out seemingly simple tasks with only the vaguest of instruction.
Let’s have an example.
Two people are in a room. One says to the other, ‘please bring a chair’.
Imagining these two people are not in a conflict of power- and are genuinely trying to cooperate with one another to get some task done- What does the other person do?
Maybe the other person brings a chair in from another room.
Maybe they ask first ‘would you like any specific chair?’ as they are leaving to go get a chair.
They may get a chair, set it down and ask ‘would you like me to place it anywhere specific?’
What would a computer do?
A computer would have a nervous breakdown.
Let’s imagine we have a super good computer with state of the art artificial intelligence.
So, you the (H)uman asks the (C)omputer..
H:”Would you get a chair, please.”
C: “I see no chair.”
H:”The chairs are outside, please get a chair.”
The computer leaves the room.
You wait, the computer does not come back. So, you go outside- thinking the computer must be having trouble finding a chair.
There’s the computer, you see it standing there, holding a chair. Standing.
H:”What are you doing? Why didn’t you bring the chair?”
C:”Oh, I thought you just wanted me to get the chair- I didn’t know I was to bring it to you.”
H:”Yes, you were to bring it to me.”
The computer walks to where you’re standing with the chair and looks at you for your next command.
H:”What are you doing, I meant to bring it to the other room.”
C:”Oh, I’m sorry.. I will take it to the other room.”
H: “What are you doing now, why are you still standing there?”
C:”What should I do?”
H:”Bring the chair to the other room.”
The computer still stands there.
H:”To the room we were in, before this one.”
The computer follows you back into the room.
You both stand around.
H:”And place the chair on the floor.”
C:”Where would you like me to place the chair?”
H:”Anywhere.”
You watch in horror as the computer catches fire caused by an overheating cpu.
Now, I don’t believe computers have to act this way.
I don’t think it requires artificial intelligence to act different either.
I think heuristics, making educated guesses- Is what a computer should be asked to do.
I am working with some things that deal with computers guessing.
OCR, and Image SImilarity.
October 4th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
[...] leocharre wrote an interesting post today onhhy computers are dumb and people are bcrazy/bHere’s a quick excerptBut my passion in code, is about having the computer guess. If I have 50 thousand documents, which are ‘good’ and which are ‘bad’ ? I believe that a computer can not make an authoritative decision about a document being good or bad. b…/b [...]
October 4th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]