[barrysloate]

The tournament on Jeopardy which pairs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter against IBM computer Watson has been pretty interesting, with the final round to be played tonight. It's clear that the computer has a huge advantage, and it is because it simply can signal in faster than a human. If there is a situation where all three know the answer, I think Watson will get it every time. It takes a human a few milliseconds to bend the thumb and press the buzzer, while a computer signals in electronically. And that is a winning advantage. And of course its response last night in Final Jeopardy was a mystery.