Watson

Watson is (arguably) the smartest machine humans have ever made. It's one thing to be able to do twenty thousand trillion calculations per second (20 petaFLOPS) like Titan... quite another to be able to beat human champions at Jeopardy. But Watson clearly did that...beat the humans. Watson is an example of rather advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI). He is "artificial" in that humans constructed him; obviously intelligent in that he can beat human champions playing Jeopardy. But. Turns out he is lacking - if that's the right word - what Commander Data is lacking on Start Trek TNG, namely, emotion. It is this which would make Watson care whether he played Jeopardy or whether he won or lost.

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

But this emotion thing is a double-edged sword at best. Why is is not sufficient, for example, for Data to be far superior to humans by any measure than emotion? So what if he feels no emotional pain or pleasure or anger or love. He's still way superior. Unless you are one of those humans who think THAT - emotion - is superior to all else. "It's what makes us human", we often hear, but that's simply a lie. All kinds of animals feel various kinds and degrees of emotion. Nothing especially "human" about it. But as for machines like Watson and Data...?

Would it really matter one way or the other if the Terminator were an emotionless machine assigned to terminate you, and cannot be reasoned with or bargained with or feel anything at all for or against you...or if the Terminator were programmed with an intense hatred of you in particular and this is what drove him to forever hunt you down and kill you?

Would it matter to you if your android nurse used her kind voice, nice smile and gentle touch in caring for you because she felt care for you, or if she felt no more for than your dishwasher, but only followed her programming?

TRB