by jnelson | Aug 17, 2018 | How the Net Works, News
Our relationships with robots will be as complicated as our relationships with any beings possessing a certain amount of intelligence and free will. Like cats or small children, perhaps, though it is sincerely to be hoped that the machines will be far more obedient...
by jnelson | Aug 23, 2017 | Interesting Items, News, Warnings
Artificial intelligence has made some incredible strides lately. Self-driving cars, talking virtual assistants, interconnected appliances and humanoid robots are no longer the stuff of sci-fi, but are becoming part of the human landscape. Researchers are excited...
by jnelson | Jan 14, 2017 | How the Net Works, News, Warnings
Complex technologies like computers are, well, complicated, incredibly complicated. Not even their designers can anticipate how they will behave in every possible situation, which is why there are beta testers and bug reports. Engineers build machines to perform...
by jnelson | Jul 1, 2016 | Events, Interesting Items, News
Independence Day, our annual festival of American freedom, is here again. But down in southern New Mexico, the Fourth of July comes around another celebration of an entirely different sort. For this weekend, the good citizens of Roswell are holding their grand UFO...
by jnelson | May 27, 2016 | How the Net Works, News
Computer geeks and math nerds familiar with the concept of algorithms probably smiled cynically at that headline. But for the vast majority of us who aren’t even sure of what they do or even are, it’s a fair description. The term is derived from the name...