A link for the fun of it

In my class tomorrow we are going to be talking about expert systems and task analysis. Expert systems are basically computer programs designed to perform at an expert level on human tasks. It's sort of far removed from what I'm interested in - I can't imagine trying to design a computer program that could do the work of a teacher. (Of course, some people have tried - when I was at BYU they were trying to put all the lower level math classes online because, you know, the math is so easy that you don't really need a human being to teach it, right?) But it's still an interesting idea, and brings up plenty of questions. What can a computer do that a human can't? What can a person do that a computer can't?

I don't feel like getting particularly philosophical right now. Instead, I'm going to direct you toward the same diversion my reading for the class directed me toward. Expert systems rely heavily upon knowledge input into the computer program, but a large part of humans' expert performance involves simple common sense and the ability to make connections that seem obvious to us. This common sense and these obvious connections are not necessarily commonsensical or obvious to a computer, and so the project I just directed you toward has the goal of using willing internet users with lots of time on our hands (or a willingness to waste the time we don't really have) to teach a computer common sense. Be careful - this is kind of fun, and kind of addicting. My favorite activity is Connect the Sentences. It's like playing a game where there are good answers, but no right answer, and where you can pretend that you're actually doing something useful and productive for society.