Maybe it's the old person's soul buried deep inside of me, but I have secret soft spot for game shows. It's right next to my secret soft spot for stealing sugar packets and right above my secret soft spot for complaining about people leaving the lights on. Regardless, at 7 p.m. I like to settle in for the one-two punch that is Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! (Speaking of Wheel, have you guys seen Vanna White lately? I'm pretty sure there's an old copy of Playboy locked in her attic, becoming more and more disfigured with each letter she taps.) The past few weeks they've been running advertisements for a special edition of Space Jeopardy of the Future! where the show's two biggest winners compete against an IBM computer named Watson.
That's exactly what Watson looks like.
The computer was built specifically to compete in Jeopardy!, which seems like a perfectly reasonable use of millions of dollars and IBM's top engineers. Watson must decipher slang, irony, and a whole bunch of other things humans are better at than computers. Watson was engineered to deduce the meaning of a question, search a database of more than half a million books, and then press a buzzer in under 3 seconds. Needless to say, I am beyond excited for this John Henry-esque installment of America's Favorite Quiz Show®.
With nerds and their meager romantic prospects in mind, the first episode will take place on February 14th. I must remember to tell the boyfriend to cancel all those wildly romantic gestures he's been planning; Jeopardy! waits for no one (unless you have a DVR, of course).
i think there's an old person's soul buried deep inside many of us. in my case, it's gender-bending.
ReplyDelete@Rylan her name is Judy. We've met.
ReplyDeleteDescribe yourself in three words: clammy, sparkly, geriatric
ReplyDeleteLol Oh man I was almost sad that I was scheduled to leave the country on the 14th when I first heard about this robot v. mortal extravaganza!
ReplyDeleteremember when kent held off going to costa rica for a few months because of a robot movie premiere?
ReplyDeleteyeah, it might be worth it, Sarah. Just leave on the 17th instead.
ReplyDelete