Monday, February 14, 2011

Watson vs Jennings vs Rutter Jeopardy Thread, Feb 14, 7pm

Happy Valentine's Day! Nothing says I love you like 30 minutes of your undivided attention on Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and Alex Trebek.

There are however secondary reasons to watch IBM's Watson take on the two all-time winningest Jeopardy champs in this week's 3-day tournament. Will the outcome portend who the ultimate victor in the greater struggle for superiority between Man and Machine will be? Well, given that my net lifetime contribution to humanity is roughly equivalent to that of a paper clip dispenser (but a pretty large one, and the kind with the magnetic rim), I'm pretty sure Machine has long ago won that battle. One instead watches this contest for much the same reasons one watches a Harlem Globetrotters game: it entertains while unfolding towards its foregone conclusion.

Who will end today's round with more winnings?
Watson
Jennings & Rutter combined
  
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Time to cuddle up with your sweetheart* and watch us humans take their next beat-down.

*I'm off to find my life-size cardboard cutout of Nancy Zerg!

17 comments:

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

When did Will Shortz chance his name to Nancy Zerg?

Nostradamus said...

There's no way those guys don't get boat raced.

Jason said...

EK, you're already cheating on your life-size cardboard cutout of Zrinka Kokot? Zar ne osjećaju sram?

Greg Hao said...

if you read any of the articles or know people that have been "practising" against Watson (a friend of mine's brother was a Jeopardy contestant that was chosen by IBM to play against Watson), and human beings have absolutely been trounced in at least the past six months in games against Watson.

Josh S. said...

WHO. ARE. THREE. PEOPLE. WHO. HAVE. NEVER. BEEN. IN. MY. KITCHEN?

MR.F said...

lulz

http://whoisarcadefire.tumblr.com

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

It's like John Henry versus the steam-powered hammer.

Josh S. said...

ONLY ONE ROUND?!

BULLSHIT!

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

That was disappointingly brief.

(awaits Dusty's patented prom night joke)

karina said...

@Mr F if I knew Arcade Fire and never liked/cared about them, does it mean I'm a hipster since last night? the fact I don't really care about who win a Grammy or not?(I haven't even checked who won best packaging)

:_(

Kyle Baker said...

DAMMIT!

Headed off at the pass with my patented prom night joke.

Steve Sax said...

Watson and Rutter tied at $5K; Jennings lollygagging at $2K. Biting recap of Day 1 here.

spank said...

Time for a change. It's all about the love now.

Josh S. said...

Anyone else think there was something screwy about Watson immediately finding the Daily Double?

Nostradamus said...

I don't know that finding it early is necessarily an advantage (other than that your opponents can't get it).

If he starts singing "Daisy Bell" tonight, THEN I'll be concerned.

(Anybody?)

Fred's Brim said...

Mr C: Me too. I am worried that it can lipread Trebek

(had to look it up)

Pistol Pete Reiser said...

I'll take "What's a Beiber?" for a thousand.