For many of the questions Watson got right on Jeopardy!, a naive Google query of the ‘en.wikipedia.org’ domain returned, as the first result, the correct answer.
All Articles
Technology is eating jobs—and not just obvious ones like toll takers and phone operators. Lawyers and doctors are at risk as well. Is your job an endangered species?
The Congressional Budget Office projects that America’s 2011 deficit will be $1.5 trillion, or 9.8% of GDP, and debt held by the public in the 2011 fiscal year will approach 70% of GDP.
Hi everyone, If you type www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org into your browser, you’ll see that Dangerously Irrelevant has a new home! I’m now hosted at BigThink, which is dedicated to deep thinking on […]
From his many interviews with “minor geniuses,” Malcolm Gladwell distills a couple characteristics shared by all successful innovators.
Just how well computers are able to understand language nuance–what researchers call the “Paris Hilton” problem–will determine how far A.I. has come.
With tremendous improvements in energy efficiency, traditional buildings can be just as sustainable as buildings that flaunt their green-ness.
A buddy of mine called me the other day with awe in his voice and asked me if I knew that Hosni Mubarak was worth as much as Bill Gates. […]
True intimacy would be far more profound if we were all connected to each other by the Internet.
Sanaa University president,Khalid Tamim, has been removed from his post, according to reports in Yemen. News Yemen claims it has been trying to get a hold of him this morning […]
1. According to our really cool BIG THINK physicist, Michio Kaku, evolution has stopped for our species. 2. But that doesn’t mean we can’t change ourselves. 3. So, in the […]
Yesterday, Google announced their 2011 class of Science Communication Fellows. This year’s program focuses on climate change and I am excited to say that I was one of the selected […]
We’ve talked a lot about volcanoes in other parts of the world, but now we have two US volcanoes making some news (although neither because they’re having a large eruption): […]
After Mubarak who is the next Middle Eastern leader to go? Some people have been pointing to President Salih and Yemen, but experts on the country have been pouring cold […]
For the past four decades, tension between artificial intelligence and intelligence augmentation—A.I. versus I.A.—has been at the heart of progress in computing science.
Do you want to have an affair? Noel Biderman is the chief executive officer of Avid Life Media, based in Toronto. “Monogamy, in my opinion, is a failed experiment,” he declares.
By the fall of 1861, Walt Whitman had come to believe he needed to do something for the war effort. His first act was to contribute a patriotic broadside in verse.
Alcohol’s sleepy effects have not gone unnoticed. Those who have had a night out drinking may know that booze can deepen nighttime sleep only to wake you up as the sun is rising.
Despite the vast amounts of computing and communication power in corporate hands, companies are only at the early stages of using I.T. to revamp business practices.
There are certain aspects of economic life, such as expensive hotel internet connections, which can only be explained when we grapple with the bounded nature of our brain.
There has been much talk about facebook and twitter revolutions in the Middle East, but given the internet’s rather low infiltration rate in Yemen – I think roughly 200,000 lines* […]
Bill Clinton’s labor secretary says President Obama’s budget proposal hinges on major cuts that ensure that Republicans get to control the conversation on spending.
Cultural impresario and literary and software agent John Brockman has spent the last half century merging art and science to create what he calls the Third Culture.
The first step to managing your own body language is to forget about your body language and focus on your intent. What do you want to happen? Focus on that first, says Nick Morgan.
The most important thing a leader can do is dream. And dream big. Big ideas and big concepts lead to major change, says Tuck School of Business professor Vijay Govindarajan.
Mark your calendars! The second annual Iowa 1:1 Institute (I11I) will be at the Polk County Convention Complex in Des Moines on April 20, 2011, from 9am to 5pm. In our first […]
‘We may need to seriously rethink the university and its future.’ [feel free to substitute ‘school’ for ‘university’] Another thought-provoking video by Dr. Michael Wesch. Happy viewing!
Florida Virtual School’s second online course / video game, Conspiracy Code Intensive Reading, appears to be ready. I blogged about Conspiracy Code American History a year and a half ago. […]
I can’t attend Educon this year. Snow in Philadelphia has canceled school today so they’re moving to Plan B. I thought I’d share some questions for attendees to ponder as […]
I’m in Amsterdam with my colleague, John Nash, for the European League of Middle Level Education (ELMLE) conference. Yesterday I facilitated an all-day preconference with a small group of teachers and […]