http://xkcd.com/c251.html

I love when students send me this kind of stuff. Thanks, Sam.

How surprised could it possibly be?

Contrast:
California county tags gang members with GPS
San Bernardino county wants to start tagging gangbangers with GPS transponders. County commissioners have applied to the state to be part of a pilot program that would monitor all offenders who are released from jail after serving time for gang-related activities.
The program, which the county has started implementing on [...]

We find prejudices in favor of theory, as far back as there is institutionalized science. Plato and Aristotle frequented the Academy at Athens. That building is located on one side of the Agora, or market place. It is almost as far as possible from the Herculaneum, the temple to the goddess of fire, the patron [...]

I’ve used Wikipedia as my standard example of successful online communities before, but after hearing Craig Newmark’s “This I Believe” essay on NPR this afternoon, I wonder if I’m being too elitist. After all, Wikipedia has very specific epistemological goals that don’t really reflect the needs, wants, and interests of the general public. The marketplace, [...]

Interesting interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google.
First: The internet is not the same as Google!
Why do you think some people are complaining about Google’s power?
Try to understand the motivations of the complainers. Google is one of the companies where advertising is moving to us and from other forms of media. The fact of the [...]

Edsinger recently demonstrated how Domo can interact with people to help them accomplish useful tasks.
Once he captures Domo’s gaze, they exchange greetings. “Hey, Domo,” Edsinger says, to which Domo responds, “Hey, Domo.” “Shelf, Domo,” says Edsinger, prompting the robot to find a shelf. Domo looks around until it spots a nearby table that looks promising. [...]

Thanks, Greg.

“The more we understand about orangutan’s cognitive processes, the more we’ll understand about what they need to survive in the wild,” said Tara Stoinski, manager of conservation partnerships for the zoo. (link via Engadget)

So the past few weeks have seen a lot of talk in the media about robot rights and ethics. I don’t have much to say about all this, since the discussions are largely Asmovian, and I think it is pretty clear that we need to move beyond Asmiov if we are ever going to actually [...]