How about the classic – “Can an all powerful god make a stone so heavy he cannot lift it?”

Or any question that requires a challenge of the assumption to answer: “Have you stopped taking drugs yet?”

By the way, I think the Watson concept is an awesome engineering challenge. Thirty years from now we all will carry ‘iSherlocks’ in our pockets.

It depends on how it was programmed.

@marinelife I think the current programming would be fine…..excluding the “answer in the form of a question” thing…

It might fare better if the programers prepared it by loading in 20 or 30 volumes of Mad magazine’s Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions.

@filmfann So you think Fluther has a lot of stupid questions?......and how can we define a “stupid question” so that Watson would be able to recognize it?

I think that Watson would not fare so well here. If nothing else, Watson lacks the sense of humor and rapier wit that many of is here have. It’s not just about correct answers here ;)

@jerv I’m mainly referring more to the differences between Jeopardy and Fluther…. On Jeopardy no matter how you arrive at your answer usually there is only one correct answer that will get you the points…..Wile on Fluther a lot of questions don’t have a right/wrong answer…..based on them being opinion questions…....So putting emotions aside for a sec, Could Watson come up with a answer to…..say…a opinion question….“Does he like me” fairly common q given the ability to use the internet most likely asked thousands of times on other sites as well….As well as the studies “how to know if he likes you”
To form a decent answer….... lol that doesn’t get moded

For the fuzzy questions we have no feedback to tell if we are right or not.

If this was a timed event, Fluther would lose because we’d have to discuss who is right and look at all sides without hurting feelings….
To win, we’d have to send a small, 5 person team. I’d recommend: Wundayatta, Marinelife, ANef_is_ENuf, Jeruba, and ETPro or MattBrowne – your list may vary. Their backgrounds are wide and varied and they can all be trusted to instantly decide who answers what without egos getting in the way.
Most important, their answers (in my opinion) are almost always correct.

@coffeenut I was also referring to the differences between Jeopardy and Fluther when I wrote that answer.

@worriedguy Wouldn’t the feedback come from the Asker as well as other members in that question? I meant Watson answering questions anonymously as a “new” member…and not a public display…... I don’t see it as a win/lose situation, more of a “what is Watson capable of”....Can it take the Question+Details and provide a proper relevant helpful? answer…..... I would love to see it try.

@jerv I may be wrong But I find that on Fluther most emotion comes more from defending your answer I doubt Watson can do that….yet than answering a normal question without emotional intent

I could see him answering the technical questions, things about what to do if something breaks, by sending a bunch of links.
But personal advice? Even if he could technically answer in that he’d put a sentence together… I wouldn’t trust Watson, because he isn’t understanding what I’m writing, just searching for the answers that ‘match’ the words I’ve put together.

It’s really impressive what IBM has been able to create, and I’ll be watching Jeopardy tonight, crap I missed yesterday!! they really had him use the internet? that’s not very fair but I don’t want advice from a computer until the computer is understanding what I’m actually saying, not just computing probabilities for me.

I’d start to trust their opinion more when the line between computer and self-thinking starts to get confusing. But right now, computers don’t have opinions, so they wouldn’t be able to truly answer any opinion question, which is what most of the questions on Fluther are.

As for asking a question? He could be programmed for him to come up with one, but it’s not authentic or real, and he doesn’t care about the answers, so no.

@DancingMind No, it doesn’t use the internet….I put that because for it to do this it would need more information sources to give answers.

Oh whoops—just looked back up at the question, I missed the very-important if when I read it the first time.

Many of my answers to technical questions are based on experience and the ability to make connections that computers thus far cannot. For instance, if you told Watson your 1990 Civic was misfiring and had a jumpy tach, it may have a little difficulty knowing that “tach” means tachometer or that the Civic is a car. Assuming it clears those hurdles, it would then list generic engine troubleshooting tips.

The real answer is that the most likely cause is a blown igniter module, and you can check by peeling up the carpet on the passengers side and counting the flashes on the ECU when you turn the key; blown igniters trip a code 14.

Watson would likely fail that due to a lack of experience and an inability to truly think. Even if one of the many possibilities Watson listed was a blown igniter, I doubt “he” would take the extra step to give the easiest way to check.

Once the questions get less technical, the fail will grow. Colloquial speech confuses many computers anyways, so you might get a correct answer to a question only slightly related to the one you asked!

I suspect that Watson is more like an autistic kid than anything else. He has access to a lot of facts, which allows him to quickly answer questions that have a single answer. When it comes to providing relationship advice, I’m sure he’d be spouting nonsense. All the facts in the world wouldn’t enable him to say anything useful about relationships. That’s something you have to experience.

Or maybe not. I suppose you could survey all the advice given on any particular question, and use the most prevalent advice. Dream analysis could be done in the same way, but it wouldn’t really be personalized and I think the analysis would be a bit empty. It would be interesting to see.

I am sure Watson could appear human simply by cutting and pasting from existing questions and answers. Maybe he/she/it is doing this already?

After watching Watson play today, I’m sure it could answer a question on Fluther…..Not only did it learn/improve from yesterday it made a Guess on a answer it was less than 30% sure on…and guessed correctly…..wild

@worriedguy iSherlocks in our pockets is both a great rhyme and classic fluthering.
Well done.

@coffeenut A question. Maybe a few questions. Somehow I think that a computer’s inherent lack of versatility would limit it. That is less of an issue with only a few well-defined categories like Jeopardy, but a handicap in a more free-form place like Fluther.
Given more storage and faster parallel processors, it will change eventually. As it stands, Watson is impressive but still not quite ready to replace a human mind. Not agile or adaptable enough.

WATSON DESTROYED THE PUNY HUMANS

Ken – Watson – Brad

11,200 23,440 5,600
——————————————————Bonus Round
—————————————————-Final Jeopardy Q
24,000 77,147 21,600———Total Score

Watson Won $1,000,000.00 for charity…...

All hail our new overlord Watson…lol