Mr. Twain, HAL 9000 on line 2

Still doing reading catch-up, I'm now looking at the April 23 2007 edition of Newsweek. There's an article by Sharon Begley titled "Know Thyself - Man, Rat, or Bot" that raises some interesting questions. It deals with metacognition - the ability to think about your thoughts - and whether this is still only a human trait.

In short, the answer is no. It turns out that man is not the only creature who thinks about thinking - researchers have found that other creatures show signs of metacognition. In test, rats think before choosing to push a lever. The right answer gets lots of pellets, but an incorrect answer gets none. Declining to answer if unsure yields a smaller reward, but does deliver some pellets. The rats took a pass, or as Begley put it "they knew what they didn't know" and evidently didn't answer unless they were sure. And it's not just rats - other tests have shown similar results with dolphins and rhesus monkeys.

Begley ends with the observation that we are getting close to the point where AI systems will be capable of something similar - evaluating where the calculation went wrong, then considering whether to take a different path toward a solution. In other words, an introspective, self-aware, computer.

So maybe Mark Twain had it wrong after all, when he said "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to."

Zen and the art of ... keyboards?

Via a BoingBoing post, here's a link to some images on Flickr taken of a keyboard that melted during a lumbermill fire a few years ago. There's a set of 30 or some images, and some are pretty cool.

Do you suppose that just contemplating this rather zen sight on your desk would tend to make your email messages more civilized?

And this will be an improvement?

The New York Times reports that NBC has brought in someone new to help with programming. The person they see as "right for the job" is the person who brought us "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Survivor." He's also credited as having "aggressively sought to bring advertisers into program development" and as being responsible for turning several off-shore shows into American hits.

I get that reality shows are cheaper to produce and even that they have an audience. Perhaps it's just me, but I'd rather have quality shows - a smart drama or witty comedy - with fewer game shows and reality shows.

The "Nightly News" is solid and the "Today Show" still works, even after all these years. I know "Heroes" is a hit, even though I haven't been following it. But beyond that, I'm not sure the once-proud peacock network has as much to be pleased about these days as it once had. I guess when it comes down to what's meant by "smart programming choices" - it's something different for me.

Interesting stuff

In my online wanderings today, I stumbled across a blog called "Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology." I haven't gone very deep into it, but yesterday's guest blogger does a riff building on a New York Times article called "This is Your Life (and How You Tell It)" that evolves into his take on the internet's impact on the future need - or lack thereof - for librarians and libraries.

For librarians, it's fundamentally an issue of whether you see the glass as half-full, or as half-empty. The ready availability of information online today is a beautiful thing. However, can we as society afford to lose the guidance about critical thinking and reviewing a source's credibility that librarians provide?

A post a day

… is probably more of a commitment than first-time bloggers should undertake. It’s possible, but that doesn’t make it probable.

Since both local PBS stations are reawakening to show recent-vintage “Doctor Who” seasons, I’ll close with a quote from the good doctor: “First things first, but not necessarily in that order.”

I'm back....

And hope to be doing something with this again. That probably makes me much like 70% of the bloggers out there right now; it seems like a cool idea to be able to weigh in on a topic by writing a quick post. It remains to be seen whether anything you have to say will actually be worthwhile or read by others.

But ... here goes.

I watched Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60" when it returned last night. It had all the things that make his work so much more interesting than most of what's out there on network TV: fast pacing, multiple story lines, witty scripts, interesting camera work, and the assumption that the viewer is intelligent enough to appreciate all those things.

My favorite line was from Allison Janney, who - after becoming increasingly more frustrated with problems she felt were caused by the Studio 60 staff and actors - said something like "OK, you're on my list. Cal's on my list, and now you're on my list." Turning to her assistant she said "Start a list. And keep a pen handy." It probably loses something in the translation, but it's a good enough line that I'll probably use it in the future when the timing seems right.

That's the thing about Sorkin's work; it's smart, and it stays with you. If only the show were staying around, as well.