blob solves maze
By jb78000
@jb78000 (15139)
January 29, 2010 10:56am CST
a drop of oil has been found to successfully navigate a maze. now this is not actually intelligence but it looks like it. what other examples of pseudo-intelligence have you come across lately - politicians using big words to try and showing they know what they are burbling about? people inventing figures to back up ridiculous opinions? what? and are any of them more impressive than mr blob finding his way through a maze?
and here is a link if you are curious about the blob: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527443.900-what-a-mazesolving-oil-drop-tells-us-of-intelligence.html?full=true
2 people like this
3 responses
@dawnald (85130)
• Shingle Springs, California
29 Jan 10
pseudo-intelligence? Hm. There was the woman at work 2 days ago who went and complained to the boss about another analyst. He went into the program code of the application that she supports and determined what needed to be changed to fix a problem. Tattling because somebody went and looked at "her" code and proposed a solution. What next? Tattling on people who meet their deadlines? Work late to get things done? Offer to help other people? Sheesh...
1 person likes this
@trruk1 (1028)
• United States
29 Jan 10
I am especially proud of financial experts. Most of them did not see any hint that the bottom was going to fallout. It did. Now we are hearing advice from those same experts about what the future holds with regard to finance and economics. Now just a minute. If these guys did not tell us the sky was falling (because they did not know), how are they now qualified to predict the future of the economy. It's like the captain of the Exxon Valdez being told, "Oh well, you screwed up that ship but don't worry about it. We have a lot more." And in the realm of international relations, remember Iraq and weapons of mass destruction? They didn't have any, but we are now expected to listen to the same people who said it was a slam dunk.
1 person likes this
@cloudwatcher (6861)
• Australia
29 Jan 10
"people inventing figures to back up ridiculous opinions?"
Isn't this the main qualification of a politician?
Opposing sides use the SAME figures to present two opposite views!
I'm sure a lot of different people would come up with an equal number of solutions for the oil drop - and would certainly include some related to aliens.
Statistics:
# Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital
# If you were standing with one foot in the oven and one foot in an ice bucket, according to the percentage people, you should be perfectly comfortable.
# He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts: for support rather than for illumination
# Do not put your faith in what statistics say until you have carefully considered what they do NOT say
# Definition of Statistics: The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures.
# Statistics are no substitute for judgment
