a different kind of google

[nikos]

http://www25.wolframalpha.com/screencas ... alpha.html
I wonder where are they going to be sticking the advertisements
very impressive nonetheless

[Kilmatead]

And when SkyNet came online in the Terminator franchise, it became self-aware which was a very bad thing, and they spent numerous sequels trying to stop it from happening in the first place.  Haven't we learned anything from films?

And whatever happened to children in educational institutions actually having to do their own research, and write their own conclusions?

It's the intellectual death of a generation, I tell you, drowning in information they know not how to comprehend.

SkyNet.  Wolves.  Schwarzenegger.  Evil.  The Archangel argued with the Devil over the body of Moses, and look what came of it?

P.S. I think it's even more frightening that Firefox's Spell-Checker can actually tell me, unbidden, how to correctly spell 'Schwarzenegger'.

We're doomed, I say.

Doomed.

[Kilmatead]

If anyone missed the combination of pop-culture references, Bible-thumping, and pseudo-eschatological scare-mongering, the above post was in jest.  Just so you know.

Aimed at academics it's only billed as a "new kind of Google" to grab headlines; it's a clever tool (which as usual is a little too American-Centric at the moment to be truly useful, but that will change).

Google already implements some similar ideas, for instance I regularly use it's built-in currency conversion bit: "what is 233 euro in sterling".  Type it in, it works perfectly.  (Technically you don't need to use the "what is" part, but I like anthropomorphising the SkyNet metaphor whenever possible. )

[nikos]

it's not that smart yet mind; i asked it show me the path to enlightenment and it choked big time

[Kilmatead]

As any Buddhist worth his salt would point out, how can you be sure choking is not the path to enlightenment?

The Gautama never said enlightenment was going to be enjoyable.

In much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

[vserghi]

i asked it show me the path to enlightenment

Easy, 42

[fgagnon]

Ah, but that is merely the answer to "The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" (and we don't even know the question)

[Kilmatead]

When asked to produce The Ultimate Question, the computer says that it cannot; however, it can help to design an even more powerful computer (the Earth), that can. The programmers then embark on a further ten-million-year program to discover The Ultimate Question. This new computer will incorporate living beings in the "computational matrix", with the pan-dimensional creators assuming the form of mice. The process is hindered after eight million years by the unexpected arrival on Earth of the Golgafrinchans and then is ruined completely, five minutes before completion, when the Earth is destroyed by the Vogons to make way for a new Hyperspace Bypass. This is later revealed to have been a ruse: the Vogons had been hired to destroy the Earth by a consortium of psychiatrists, led by Gag Halfrunt, who feared for the loss of their careers when the meaning of life became known.

Lacking a real question, the mice decide not to go through the whole thing again and settle for the out-of-thin-air suggestion "How many roads must a man walk down?" from Bob Dylan's protest song "Blowin' in the Wind".

[Kilmatead]

As a bit of fun: 12 surprising things that Wolfram Alpha knows.  Guess it's not just for science geeks.