Slog - Comments on Don't Try This At Home http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/04/dont_try_this_at_home Posted by Sage Van Wing A librarian friend of mine recently turned me on to the fantastic 1957 movie “Desk Set.” This is the last of the Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy romantic comedies and one of the only ones filmed in color. It is witty and funny and, best of all, thoughtful about issues that still concern us today. Based on a Broadway play, the movie pits the hands-on research crew at a large television broadcast company in the 50’s against the coming of technology in the form of a giant, noisy, imperfect early computer known as the “mechanical brain.” Hepburn... Copyright 2008 Sat, 14 Apr 2007 11:30:56 -0800 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:07:32 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by GDC There is an old radio show from the series "Dimension X" call "A Logic Named Joe". I think the date on it is 1947 or there abouts.

The story is about a device called a "Logic" which is a talking interface that can answer any question you ask it. However the device itself doesn't store all the information, rather it links to other Logic devices, each storing a bit of information. You know, a 'network' of home computing units that create a 'web' of information that is all knowing.

The plot of the episode it the fail safe device that doesn't let the Logic give any illegal advice or knowledge. Well until a sadistic kid disables the device then the Logic's start telling people how to make bombs and poison people without getting caught.

Ahh, that was some good post-war technological paranoia...

Of course the other side of the Google vs Librarian conversation is machines are not adaptable (only upgradeable) but people are. As a result if all the information we want is in Google, we as people begin to change the way think and ask questions to get the answers we want out of technology.

We might want to know, "When was Thomas Jefferson born?". That is something we could ask the librarian and they could find out. However as we become more accustomed to thinking in HTML, which we are because that is logic we must use to get useful Google queries, we begin to change the way we use and access information. The technology we created is teaching us to think like it. Because we can't create a machine to think like a person, we as people have to learn to think like machines. Otherwise our technology is useless.

I am really summarizing but there are hundreds of essay's and even video about this sort of thing

]]> GDC http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/04/dont_try_this_at_home#c693612 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/04/dont_try_this_at_home#c693612 Life Sat, 14 Apr 2007 12:42:18 -0800 Comment by catalina vel-duray She has reached the topmost ladder, o'er her hangs the great dark bell;
Awful is the gloom beneath her, like the pathway down to hell.
See! the ponderous tongue is swinging; 'tis the hour of curfew now,
And the sight has chilled her bosom, stopped her breath, and paled her brow.
Shall she let it ring? No, never! Her eyes flash with sudden light,
As she springs, and grasps it firmly: "Curfew shall not ring to-night!"


I love that movie :-)

]]> catalina vel-duray http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/04/dont_try_this_at_home#c693696 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/04/dont_try_this_at_home#c693696 Life Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:11:53 -0800 Comment by The Baron Dude, Wikipedia!

]]> The Baron http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/04/dont_try_this_at_home#c693869 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/04/dont_try_this_at_home#c693869 Life Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:32:13 -0800 Comment by truthseeker and, please, whatever you do...don't try this at home, either!

http://ladybunny.net/blog/uploaded_images/fish-737330.jpg

]]> truthseeker http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/04/dont_try_this_at_home#c693885 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/04/dont_try_this_at_home#c693885 Life Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:40:13 -0800 Comment by wile_e_quixote Desk Set rocks. My mom and I used to watch that every time it came on TV, it was one of her favorite movies and it's one of mine, and I was extremely pleased to get the DVD for Christmas. One advantage of using a reference librarian, they don't pimp ads for whatever topic you're researching, and/or Viagra, on the side, unlike Google which has such things on the side of the page.

]]> wile_e_quixote http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/04/dont_try_this_at_home#c693949 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/04/dont_try_this_at_home#c693949 Life Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:07:32 -0800