O My Dear Cricket Fan! Where art thou?

A guy can change anything. His face, his home, his family, his girlfriend, his religion,his God. But there's one thing he can't change. He can't change his passion...
- "The Secret in their eyes(2009)"

We humans are a fickle lot. Our fickle minds can be as predictable as the waves in the ocean. Amidst this sea of predictability, if one were to look for a phase in our lives, where we just followed our hearts, then one of those phases is definitely as a passionate fan of sport. In this period of time we lose reason, we stop being angry, we follow our hearts. We rally behind our teams, even if they were the midgets of the sport. Our teams are personified as Davids fighting biblical battles with Goliath and even when there is a loss, we brush it off and look forward to the next battle. We live hoping for that rare miracle that would bring joy to our hearts. A joy that is unparalleled in comparison with the other joys of our life. For this is the only time we come close to being happy for somebody else, for this is the joy that we all celebrate in unity, for this is something that fills our mundane lives with hope and with a sense of pride.

Today as I pick up some remnants of my writing(on a very pedantic note, I would say typing), I realize it's the same fan in me who urges me to pen(er...key?) down some thoughts. Thoughts that I wish every other fan will echo. As an individual in his mid-twenties I realize that growing up in India was very eventful. Our generation can be looked at as the missing link between the India of the old and the India today. We were born before the liberalization era started. Some of us spent most of our teenage lives without the World Wide Web. We were close to finishing our undergrads when the mobile phone and Internet boom shook us.

Amidst all these changes, if there was a change that was talked about more often than anything, then it would be the rise in fortunes of the Indian Cricket team. We grew up watching a young 16 year old, taking on the world with his fearless batting. Touted as the "special one", he started winning matches for the country single handedly. He took the burden of expectations with a head that was as calm as a sage who had drunk deep the ocean of knowledge. For almost seven years he was alone, he carried the hopes of a nation. We all cried when he failed, were ecstatic when he succeeded. His joys were ours. He represented a resurgent country. A change in fortunes, an icon and more importantly a genius who was human. Cricket like all other games is a team game. A single player cannot win you any game. It is a combination of 11 players who sweat and toil to achieve victory. Just as we thought that this little champion would play the rest of his career as a lone warrior, emerged a bunch of players, who under his shadow started blossoming. We knew that something special was happening. We pined our hopes suddenly not on just one individual, but a bunch of steadfast players who had the gumption to fight. Our fathers would have witnessed meek cats, but we were part of a resurgent Indian team that had tigers. Suddenly when we thought all was going well, a scandal hit us before the new millennium could begin. Few of our countrymen were involved. The captain of the team was the main culprit. The team suddenly lost it's leader. A radical change meant that one of the players from that performing bunch had to become the captain. His exploits as a batsman were always going to be spoken about, but it is his term as a leader that changed the way we Indians played cricket. He was called the "Royal Bengal Tiger" and it is under him that our team started winning. We suddenly realized that the strong leader could rip his shirt off in the hallowed balconies of Lord's, which is the mecca of cricket. We joined him for we knew that the golden era had begun. The era of the "Famous Five" in Indian Cricket had begun. The Genius, The Bengal Tiger, The Wall, The Very Very Special One and Jumbo, were they called. Many a victory was forged at their hands. It was the time for us to hold our heads high and stand behind our teams. We came close to winning the world cup in 2003. We started conquering peaks that were never supposed to be conquered. We fought against the invincible Aussies and gave them a fight.

It was roses, roses, all the way,
With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
The church-spires flamed, such flags they had,
A year ago on this very day.

The air broke into a mist with bells,
The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries.
Had I said, "Good folk, mere noise repels---
But give me your sun from yonder skies!"
They had answered, "And afterward, what else?"

But life is not a bed of roses. These great men were growing older. Their reflexes were becoming less quicker. They were not immortals but humans who would grow old. The Royal Bengal tiger soon grew old. He had to be sent out ignominiously. A great general he was. The treatment given was lesser than that what a peasant could recieve. He roared back like the tiger he always was.He fought till the very end, but the end was always going to be bad. A sacrifice had already been made. The great bunch was broken, but their wills weren't. They came back even strongly. A comeback that put kids 20 years their juniors to shame. Young at heart they were told. But not even these great men can stand the ravages of time. Time is all conquering and as they reach the fag end of the twilights of their careers, they suddenly realize that passing on the mantle is not easy, for these great men have walked a great distance. As they turned back to see, they realize that there aren't any young people behind their backs and they are stranded alone. But they have to go. With no young blood to support them, they realize that victories aren't going to happen. Their careers are not going to be the swan song that we all thought it would be.

But, as these great men lie stranded in shores afar, some of my fellow fans have started baying for their blood. It seems the whole world has forgotten their contributions. How can one forget the 2001 Kolkata Test, where greatness was achieved. How can one forget memories like Adelaide 2003, World Cup 2003 and many more till the crowning glory World Cup 2011. Have we forgotten that there is not a supply of young blood that could take the reins of these great men. Do we realize that the young blood that we all are supporting now did not have the same bravado as these men had a decade ago? In a utopian world I'd know that these great men would again show semblance of their greatness before passing on, but then this is the harsh real world. They would not end their careers on a high, but would rather be pushed into oblivion. Among all this chaos, when they take guard probably for the final time, their question to the fan would be, What have I done to deserve this fate? Have we all stopped being true fans? Or as is oft said, you are only as good as your last match. As Robert Browing, ever so sadly in his poem The Patriot wrote:

I go in the rain, and, more than needs,
A rope cuts both my wrists behind;
And I think, by the feel, my forehead bleeds,
For they fling, whoever has a mind,
Stones at me for my year's misdeeds.

Thus I entered, and thus I go!
In triumphs, people have dropped down dead.
"Paid by the world, what dost thou owe
"Me?''---God might question; now instead,
'Tis God shall repay: I am safer so.

PS : Thanks to Jayanth for reminding me that quote from The Secret in their eyes.

The Middle Class

This post is partly inspired by the usage of the term "Middle Class" by a friend of mine who is now at Microsoft. I guess he must have forgotten this by now.

One of the perks of being a Computer Science student is understanding the process of Abstraction. Well simply put abstraction is knowing something on a need to know basis. One of the best examples is a light switch. We all know that if we turn on the switch, the bulb glows. We certainly don't have to know what processes are triggered when we turn on the switch or how the electrons flow from one place to another or the so.

My definition of talent is sometimes abstracted to only two levels : 1)The middle class, 2)The Wunderkind. The Wunderkind is an enigma. He can be the basis of the theist rebuttal argument to the atheist. He can achieve what he wants and the achievement will come as no surprise to anybody. His successes are awe-inspiring. Everyone aspires to be him, but it ain't that easy. The crests and troughs in his brain are wired for greatness. Add a few qualities like hard work, discipline and commitment and hey presto! you have a machine whose output is always correct. Talking about him is only redundant for you all have seen him somewhere in your life.

I now go to The Middle Class. In the line PQ, if point P is dull and point Q is genius, our hero will stand at the mid point, i.e (P+Q)/2. He is at a certain advantage here. He surely knows that he has to move forward thereby increase his proximity to genius. He also knows where a fall back would lead him. Surprisingly enough! you would see that in life it is Middle class that struggles much harder than anyone. Nothing is given on a platter to him. He needs to work hard and even harder. The Law of Equivalent Exchange is only for Physics and Chemistry. Life does not work that way. He faces constant failures but his endeavor to succeed never ceases. By Hook or Crook he shall try to move a rung up in the ladder of success. The Wunderkind has genius in him, but the Middle Class has fortitude in him. It is this fortitude that carries him forward. It is this fortitude that allows him to scale heights. It is this fortitude that inspires his fellow Middle Class to work harder. He looks in awe at The Wunderkind and tailors the ethics to suit his needs. In life he has a higher percentage of survival and success thanThe Wunderkind. Oh! if you look around you would see that he is not affected by any criticisms. He has a sound mechanism to block it and carry on with his work.

Now why did I write this post? It is because I also came across What it takes to be great?. Oh yeah I guess I must have posted this long ago somewhere else too, but then one shouldn’t forget the article, not because it gives the hope to an otherwise dull mind, that it has all the ingredients in it to aspire for greatness, but because it motivates the same dull brain to come with, at least a percentage of work that is considered better than ordinary :-).

The Trophy

“Ok guys! That’s it for the day. Have a nice weekend! Make sure you are all safe and keep yourselves fit for our match on Tuesday”, hollered out the Captain to all his boys.

The Knowledge Systems Incorporated had recently announced a Cricket Tournament to raise the mood of its employees. Around twelve teams had registered for the tournament and Ram A’s Team was one among them. His Captain, Venky P had a lot of faith in his boys and believed that they could go the distance this time, provided everybody practiced a lot. He was the most enthusiastic as well. Venky P was the fast bowler of the team , not to be confused with his namesake, ex-Indian player Venkatesh Prasad who bowled some of the slowest leg cutters, Venky.P was express fast. In the practice trials his raw pace had knocked out one of the organizers cold. The tall frame of the Captain bowling reminded him of Curtly Ambrose striding in with his sweat bands. The rest of the team wasn’t a pushover either. Their senior most player, a research scientist, who was named after his parents’ favorite OS Ubuntu, was a very good fast bowler. In addition to these known faces, there were a lot of enthusiastic new joinees, who were keen to prove their worth. The ground that day was certainly filled with a lot of employees sweating it out, perfecting their back-lifts or trying to bowl express fast deliveries. Some of the enterprising folks were also working on their fielding skills.

Ram A , was a die-hard cricket fan himself. Gone were the days when he could play really well. As a young kid, he cherished the hopes of becoming a cricketer, but then so does every other kid in the country. This tournament presented an opportunity to regain some of that child like enthusiasm. I am growing older, so why not have some fun when there is the opportunity.

“Enjoying it aren’t you?” asked Siva excitedly to him. He was the organizer of this tournament. An idea conceived by him, which had received the whole hearted support of the entire corporation. Siva somehow had convinced the top brass to award prize money to the team and had also got a handsome trophy, worth a huge sum for this particular tournament. The amount of cash spent for the tournament meant that there was a lot of seriousness around, and that every other team wanted to place their hands on the coveted trophy, which in itself was worth a little fortune.

Ram A had a careful look at the trophy the previous day. It was a gleaming silver cup on a golden pedestal, bearing no inscriptions. His colleagues who caught him gazing at the cup longingly, chided him playfully for wanting it so much. Ram just looked at them and smiled.
Suddenly realizing that he had important things to do, Ram turned to Siva and asked him rather casually,

“Ohh Siva! do you have a Facebook account?” .

“Dei, Who doesn’t have one?”, A bemused Siva replied and handed Ram his id.

Finding a new Facebook friend was a norm in this Internet era. If you had a new acquaintance, you’d be more likely to add him on Facebook, sooner or later. That’s how the brave new world of social networking worked. It had started with the popular website Orkut in the early 2000s and slowly moved to Facebook. As you know Facebook makes the world a smaller place. Through status messages you could post what’s on your mind and all your friends would see that. In addition there were features also to let people know your location and also what you are doing currently. Status messages like Bought a wonderful new car, Finally proposed to my girl!, I ate Pasta at Pizza Hut now and it tasted yuck, My house is burning like hell now!... was common parlance, and everybody wanted to beat the other one in show casing their inanities. On top of it, you could also post your photo albums with nice captions. This was a new world indeed, albeit virtual.

On his way home, Siva was lost in his own thoughts, Oh! I have to update the trophy’s picture. I’ll get a picture of it from my terrace and upload it tonight. And how can I not show the glossy gift vouchers? How can they be left alone? League of Champions sounds a good album name.

****************************************

He called himself The Dark Knight. Yeah! After a tiring day as a Software Engineer, he always figured out that night time was the best to carry out his activities. He considered himself a freak! An aberration! He thought that his name was very ironic, since he was probably somebody who did more wrong than right. He slipped into the thief mode only during exigent circumstances. Nobody ever figured out where little things were lost, and the police also couldn’t easily find a motive. Random people losing house hold items that cost in thousands don’t really raise alarms every other day.

Siva has accepted your friend request.


He looked at the notification with a wry smile. Let me click on info.

Siva has added new photos to the album “League of Champions”.


There was more information that made him smile. He realized that it is going to be his day after all.

Siva is attending a “All night party at XXXX-Café”.


Casually he went through the album. Any other person would have wondered on why he spent so much time looking at each photo in detail. But he likened his activity to a kid who fills in a jigsaw puzzle. Aah there is the first piece. Sure enough, there was a picture of Siva holding the trophy in his hands. Ok before any suspicions are raised, let me ‘like’ it.

You and 75 other people like this


He decided that a like was not enough. A comment to show his keen interest in the trophy seemed harmless.

*Sigh*, I wish the trophy were in my home now :).

****************************************

The thief decided that he had enough of fooling around and focused on the remaining pieces of the jigsaw. Ohh look! A Hotel near his house. This is going to be a cake walk. Sure enough, Google gave him the location of the hotel. These days it’s so easy finding an address, he thought. Luckily for him the city he lives in was covered by Google Street View. All he had to do was to key in the address, and behold, a a panoramic view of the entire street was presented to him . With a few clicks, he was able to spot the house which would be the scene of his crime.

The night was young, and so was the thief. He entered the house without any trouble, and was inside in a jiffy. The absence of alarms or security systems ensured that he had no troubles whatsoever. The trophy gleamed even in the dark. I’ll allow him to keep the vouchers, he thought benevolently, looking at a set of vouchers beneath the trophy. He opened his bag, got some tools, and with the dexterity of a master, dismantled the trophy. Each of these parts is going to be worth something.

****************************************

The pawn broker at XXX-Street wore many hats. One of them was buying stolen goods from petty thieves and maid servants in the city. Many a time he would end up paying much little for the stolen good than it was ever worth. Today, as he was ruminating on the lack of customers, a young man entered the shop. The pawn broker recognized the familiar face, and beckoned to him. The young man took the rusty chair available and spread out his wares on the table. A smile ensued from the lips of the pawn broker. The bargain was then stuck and money was exchanged. The young man bade the pawn broker good bye and went on his way.

****************************************

The police registered a case in the morning. What was lost would not cause a ripple in the bustling scene of crime in the city. They were sure that the thief would never be found, but they still had to do the paperwork and the other formalities, not to mention the false assurances.

****************************************

Ram A was very excited on that day. His team had won the Cricket Tournament. Both the teams in the final had fought really well, braving the heavy rains that lashed the city on that day. The tournament went on despite the fact that the trophy was lost. After all the presentation ceremony was over, when everyone was trudging along, Ram found Siva, sitting alone in melancholy, ruminating over probably the lost trophy and losing in the finals. Ram thought it was appropriate to console him. “You played really well Siva, I am sure you can win the trophy next time”. Siva gave a weak smile and said, “But we can never get the company to sponsor us for a new tournament again, all because of my mistake”. Ram A consoled him and walked towards his departing team members. As he ran, a wet slip of paper fell out of his pocket without his knowledge, and the name “Ramchand Jain-Pawn Broker...” could be made out from that worthless piece of scrap.

PS: If you have read this not-so-good piece till here, thanks a lot :)

Face-ing your future

A lot of you are absolutely aware of what Web 2.0 means and what change that has brought about. Among the plethora of changes that it continues to offer, the rise of Social Networks and the way it permeates into each of our lives is no longer something new. To be fairly honest, articles talking about the rise of Social Networking and the way people interact on Facebook these days sounds trite and contrived. Yes they exist, but how do they transform computing in general? I haven't found a lot of articles that talk about what is in store for the next two years in terms of computing and in terms of what to do with the wealth of information that these networks dish out to us and what techniques are used to tackle them.


While a single glance at a Facebook page, one can really predict the type of the user. *This applies to any human who just looks at the profile and the Wall updates, along with the frequency of updates*. While I am not going to discuss on the updates that focus on how a single great looking female's inanity has been appreciated or how a certain celebrity's foolishness has been applauded, I am certainly looking at how these obscure status messages can turn into potential business goldmines.

Coming to the crux of the situation. A seemingly innocuous status message like "My dream!" along with a picture of a "Porsche Cayenne" gives an indication that the poster is concerned about or even likes that car. If Chaos Theory can argue that the fluttering of a butterfly's wings can cause an earthquake on the other side of a world, surely a status message can prompt a lot of businesses to latch on to the opportunity. While not everyone might want a "Cayenne" but surely a lot of us might want Xboxes, Wiis, Cameras, Mobile Phones, Kindles and what not? Enter Natural Language Processing. For decades AI researchers have talked about how NLP can be used to understand text. While most of these projects were really academic and served as interest to a lot of scientists and researchers, their true test comes out in this age of the unstructured data. A system with even 50% of accuracy, when run on a set of 100,000 status messages can give you a substantial idea on what people are talking about. Why then, these businesses can utilize this to directly talk to the user, probably come up with offers and go one step ahead in the marketing of the product.

Even as we are talking a lot of people are looking at this problem and are figuring out ways to solve them. One of the greatest challenges in building such a system has been the way in which such a system can be show-cased to the client. While Human Beings can be inane, nothing can take away their brains from them. So where are the stumbling blocks to processing this?

1)How do you understand the domain that the user is speaking( Even if the domain is resolved, how can the machine evolve and learn? Can parsers co-exist with ontologies? Is an ontology based parser probable? If we claim that the brain has an internal wiring and then assuming that ontology is the poor cousin of the brain, can we parse?

2) How do you present it as a sell-able product? What kind of examples do you show case the client? This is definitely the biggest challenge. The challenge arises from the fact that the client here is definitely presented with a virtual goldmine hidden in some treasure chest and the problem is that he does not know how do get to the goldmine. More often than not the client might get the wrong assumption while looking at an application. The way he tests it should be on the same lines that the program was tested. How can both the business user and the application developer align their thoughts? Very critical as it makes or breaks your product.

3) Finally how do you scale the system?. Scalability is always the question in many applications, but in my case I'd rather say, how easy is it that the system learns new patterns. Can it apply the patterns from one domain and use the same to extend it to another domain? Would that be a worthwhile route to take?

Loads of questions, very little and diverse answers, the future, probably is not bleak, but then there are tough times ahead for products which don't embrace the power of Social Networks.

A verbal thought (Literally)

Wrote this in my company blog today and since this space keeps languishing every once in a while, I thought I'll update it here

How does the human brain process speech? How does it understand the semantics of language? If there are ambiguities, what mechanisms does it use to resolve? For example lets have a look at these sentences, He is a man of simple wants and He wants money.

Admitted this might be more for people who are interested in Artificial Intelligence or probably wonder how to build systems that understand text. In one of the scenarios that I was working, I came across something fascinating. The words need and want are very interesting. As a noun they really don't require an object action to finish the sentence. They themselves become synonyms. For example look at the sentence He is a man of simple needs. Assuming a machine can process that needs is almost a noun here and can identify the underlying meaning behind needs, you have an absolutely great semantic engine.(I'd use the word semantic as it makes more sense :-) ).

Now here are two interesting sentences :

I need a camera.
I want a car.

In both the cases the verb is a simple verb and requires an object i.e camera or car to complete the sentence. Processing them is a breeze for some of the systems today. Heck! even a rudimentary system developed by us can process these kinds of sentences.

Lets get into a more specific scenario. Now the goal is to understand how verbs like need and want behave. Lets introduce a bit of anarchy (literally) and see if these words behave just the same?.

I need to purchase a car
I want to buy a house in Chennai.

Notice anything different? At first glance you see that there are two new verbs introduced purhcase and buy. Well both of them essentially means the same. You could also add construct to the second sentence. Now you have two verbs in the same sentence. How does your brain resolve? Do these steps happen?

1) Decide that need takes in an object to complete it's meaning.
2) Looking for an object action, come to purchase a car, buy a house.
3) Realize that purchase and buy are two verbs which in turn require an object action to complete their sentence. One cannot literally say I want to buy. There is always the question of What action that follows the verb.
4) Then decide that want to purchase actually points to a desire to verb. i.e desire to purchase.

Essentially when faced with words like want, need, a system cannot just process them alone. It has to look for the other verbs in the sentence which aid in their meaning. So the secondary verb is of more importance or is the deciding factor in the sentence. If any of you can help me figuring out much complex situations, you are welcome. I just am pouring out my thoughts here.

One should marvel at the wonders of the human brain. All of us could handle these sentences even in our first standard. In trying to mimic the brain, I just am stumped at how the brain handles complex things in such simpler steps. As for me, I think finishing the Wren and Martin book again, with a deeper understanding of each of the parts of speech is something that cannot be put down for ever :-).

Correction:I had written this in my company internal blog and Rb corrected me at the parts where I have crossed the text. This is his comment :

In my view it is "I need to act" and that action could be "run" or "purchase a house". The What is not mandatory. The "house" to me belongs to the action of "purchase" and not of "need".

Though "I want to purchase a house" is semantically similar to "I want a house"; they cannot be treated the same. Examples of the form "I went to purchase a house" or "I want to sell my house" show the tie-in of the "house" to the "action" and away from the "want".

That sense of Awkwardness

Awkward : socially uncomfortable; unsure and constrained in manner; "awkward and reserved at parties"; "ill at ease among eddies of people he didn't know"; "was always uneasy with strangers"

Have you ever been in an awkward social situation? How do you react to that? Do you get carried away by the moment? Do you really reflect on it? Do you later on try to view the situations with your inner eye? How much of what people say do you really care about? What do you do in the following situations:

The Sudden meet: So you have great friends. As friends you hang out together, you make plans for weekends, you make fun of each other and all the normal things that friends do. There cometh a time when the friends move on especially when they find potential life partners. Their lives become different then. The luncheons become progressively lesser, meets rarely do happen. The times become hectic. Suddenly out of a blue you meet each other. Both of you have nothing to say. What happens next? Awkwardness

The Repartee : So you for a long time bear the brunt of teasing in your group. One fine day you just happen to joke on one of the others. The person receiving it takes it so badly that sometimes the accusation of negativity drops on you. What do you do to reply? Every other day the person would have been taking their liberties on you, making fun of you with all and sundry. All this takes a negative turn when you give the joke back to them. The next moment all you feel is plain Awkwardness.

The Worker : You bug your best friend to do a lot of work for you. He might be better than you at certain computing tasks. You get all your work done from him. You have the audacity to disturb him and go to the extent of even getting upset since he does not finish your tasks. After everything gets over, suddenly you vanish. You become more important. You have everything now. The next time when he calls you, you ask your office colleague to pick the phone for you. How would your friend react next? Awkward

The Accusation : So you have your certain set of interests. You have your ambitions. You love doing certain things. What happens when somebody says that you do the very things to satisfy somebody else or to be approved by a group. The next moment your whole life flashes behind you. You look at yourself moving through time and then take a moment to get back. Another gem of an Awkward moment.

Life is a roller coaster ride of little moments. One cannot be his best at every given point in time. One aspires to be. Sometimes, the best of them would lose track in the constant barrage of negative cannons thrown at them. Obviously one has to take it. Because only in falling can we rise up again

PS : I really don't know what to write on a rainy day. These were just reflections of a mind which is tired.

The varied streams of reasoning

A daily quiz question mail-list sent a question with three pictures, asking us to give a connect between the three. I found that the first two pictures just gave away the connect. The first was a picture of Stephen King, second was a picture of Rita Hayworth. To anybody who has watched The Shawshank redemption, this would be a piece of cake. I guessed the third picture to be Frank Darabont, which was probably inferred from the fact, that I know Stephen King and Rita Hayworth connect only for this movie and the other closest connect I can find is Frank Darabont. It turned out to be right when I verified my thoughts.

What exactly triggered my brain to give the answer as Frank Darabont. At a mathematical level I'd say that the intersection of {King,Hayworth,The Shawshank Redemption} can lead me to certain connects like {Morgan Freeman,Bob Gunton, Frank Darabont,...}. Now I know that the third picture is not Bob Gunton or Morgan Freeman because I know how they look like. So the only possible connect here was Darabont. While we can mathematically eliminate a set of choices, the visual recognition also plays a huge part in the final elimination here. Yesterday's question was similar. I had to look at an epitaph of a young poet to figure out whom the epitaph belonged to. The young poets I knew, who died early in life were {Keats,Wilfred Owen,...}. I decided to look at the date of his death. Now that leads me to only Victorian Era poets. Here the only Victorian Era poet who died and closely resembled the epitaph was Keats. That turned out to be the answer. What amazes me is the fact that so much stimuli are hit upon when our brain is asked to process or deduce an answer. The cognitive processes that follow deal with visual recognition, context understanding, elimination of other choices.

These are minimal observations from somebody who also is a budding practitioner of Artificial Intelligence, but the questions these observations throw are mind boggling. How do I for example build a simple reasoning engine which can also accumulate knowledge. From the previous examples the accumulating knowledge part was how Frank Darabont and Keats get added to the brain. Now they are stored permanently in my brain and probably would serve for future knowledge gathering.

As Steven Pinker put it, The main lesson of thirty-five years of AI research is that the hard problems are easy and the easy problems are hard. The mental abilities of a four-year-old that we take for granted – recognizing a face, lifting a pencil, walking across a room, answering a question – in fact solve some of the hardest engineering problems ever conceived.... As the new generation of intelligent devices appears, it will be the stock analysts and petrochemical engineers and parole board members who are in danger of being replaced by machines. The gardeners, receptionists, and cooks are secure in their jobs for decades to come