I watched this first episode of 3 and thought to myself how amazing and then I also thought to myself about all the implications such an undertaking could have.
Artificial Intelligence.
A super computer that takes up as much room as the first computer with the power of almost 3000 computers.
and it is learning. not very well yet but well enough as witnessed by todays Jeopardy episode.
From Metropolis to the WOPR, Colossus, Logan's Run, the ARIIA in Eagle Eye, all cautionary tales or even warnings (skynet)
so is this just a harmless game show trick? or could it be the start of something unreal.
Such forays into this field could also be very beneficial too,
A computer surgeon capable of doing things a doctor could never even think of and quickly.
working on string theory
discovering a safe way to split an atom.
possibilities are vast.
or are the people at IBM just creating Frankenstein's monster?

Here's a new article to make your head hurt:

World's total CPU power: one human brain (http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/02/adding-up-the-worlds-storage-and-computation-capacities.ars)

Watson got today's final jeopardy wrong but is still in the lead with $35734 as it was unsure of the question and wagered very little
10,400 for Brad Rutter
4800 for Ken Jennings

the game is over and here are teh two day totals:

Brad: 21600
Ken 24000
Watson 77147

Ken Jennings put this note in his final answer but does it have any truth to it?
"I for one welcome our computer overlords"
The category was: 19th Century Novelists. The clue was: “William Wilkinson’s ‘An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia’ inspired this author’s most famous novel.” All three answered correctly with, “Who is Bram Stoker?” and Ken even added an amusing, “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.” Brad doubled his total and added $11,200 to his previous total, resulting in $21,600. Ken added $1000 to today’s total and added $19,200 to yesterday’s total, resulting in $24,000. Watson was the big winner and added $17,973 to today’s total, giving him $41,413 to add to yesterday and resulting in $77,147.


a very interesting experiment obviously watson has a long way to go however as was witnessed several times in the program.
I think we have to keep in mind that Watson while having a huge storage capacity had to be tailor programmed to play jeopardy, and is not capable of hearing or reacting to its surroundings or even the game itself, it made no sense in its double jeopardy wagers and even said the same wrong answer as Ken Jennings once.
.....and the band played on

Your comment about Watson being tailor made to play jeopardy is dead on. To me the contestants were basically playing against a search engine. I don't think we're near a fully functioning AI at this point.

I agree that AI can benefit mankind in tedious or precision work, but I would have my concerns with a fully functional independant AI unit. With all our human foibles, insecurities, desires, etc. I doubt a rational AI would view us as its superiors let alone equals. For example an emotion such as love could even be construed as irrational.