Jeopardyrecently devoted a whole category to questions about Bruce Springsteen. Additionally, all of the category names were related to the singer: “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Glory Days,” “Cover Me,” “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” and “The ‘E’ Street Band.” Fans hoping for a whole board related to Springsteen, though, were disappointed to find out only the Springsteen category really had questions about the New Jersey rocker. For example, “E Street Band” contained clues related to words beginning the letter E.
This video puts together the questions from the “Bruce Springsteen” category. Most long-time fans should find themselves doing pretty well with the clues, such as one about a Springsteen song that mentions suicide and was proposed as the New Jersey state song in 1980. Check it out.
Last night, the special Jeopardy human-versus-machine match ended with Watson the computer defeating the Jeopardy human champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. In the two-game match, the winner was determined by who (or what) had the most money at the end. Watson easily won the first game and then won a closer second game to become champion. All of Watson’s money and 50% of the human competitors’ money went to charities.
Watson went on several runs where it looked invincible, but at other times it made mistakes. Certain types of questions that required a different type of thinking caused problems for Watson. For Final Jeopardy of the first game, the question asked for a U.S. city that has an airport named after a WWII hero and an airport named after a WWII battle. Watson said the U.S. city was Toronto, which is news to people in Canada.
Watson’s big advantage seemed to be its response time. Watson received the clues electronically through a different process than the humans. And it was able to time its responses perfectly so its buzzing was not too early, where it would be blocked, but still fast enough to beat the humans. Contestant Ken Jennings has noted this “big advantage” in Watson’s response time, but he was generous in concluding, “I wouldn’t call this unfair. . . precise timing just happens to be one thing computers are better at than we humans.” I still think the humans should challenge the fairness of the way the machine was able to get the questions and respond. Still, it was quite impressive how Watson could process the language and respond in the form of a question.
The previous Chimesfreedom posts on Jeopardy and Watson have featured the folk song “John Henry,” so the song of the day today is “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” by The Flaming Lips off the excellent album of the same name, and we are going to discuss the movie Westworld (1973). So press the play button at the top of this post and read on.
Westworld is about an adult amusement park where androids are supposed to help human beings fulfill their dreams and fantasies. Of course, as we all know, anything involving robots is bound to go wrong. And soon, the androids, including one that looks a lot like the King of Siam from the King and I, start really killing people.
In addition to Yul Brynner, Westworld featured James Brolin. To you kids, he’s the guy who is now married to Barbara Streisand and who is the father of Josh Brolin, who was in the True Grit remake and No Country for Old Men. Westworld was written and directed by Michael Crichton, and the 1973 movie was the first one to use digital technology. Crichton would go on to write a similarly amusement-park-out-of-control themed Jurassic Park.
According to IMDb, there is a remake of Westworld in the works with the release scheduled for next year. It appears they are still looking for a director and cast, but Russell Crowe is rumored to be in it. I’m guessing he would play the Yul Brynner tough-android part.
But with Watson showing what computers can do, maybe by the time the new Westworld is made, a real android will be able to play the Yul Brynner role. I suppose the use of Watson Junior in the movie will put Russell Crowe out of work. But it is not a bad thing that computers take our jobs. We will need the time off from work to eat our vitamins and discipline our bodies for the big dooms-day battle against the machines. Save us Yoshimi, “it’d be tragic/ if those evil robots win.”
Bonus Answers to Questions: Contestant Ken Jennings answered several questions from viewers online in an interesting and funny exchange on the Washington Post website. Check it out.
After last night, the computer is tied for the lead with one of the humans. For the next two nights Jeopardy will feature the ongoing battle between an IBM computer named Watson and two of its all-time champions: Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. After the first stage of the three-part competition, Watson is tied with Rutter for the lead. Because last night’s show featured stories about Watson and IBM, they did not finish the first match, and tonight is Double Jeopardy. Tune in to see how it comes out.
IBM has been working on Watson for three years. The competition was taped in January, but we will not know the results until the shows are broadcast. Someone has already written a book about the battle: Stephen Baker’s book Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything.
It is interesting how complex the machine must be to take on humans in Jeopardy. It is not like a program on your computer that already has the answers to play a pre-written game such as Jeopardy or other trivia game. Watson is really “thinking” about phrases it has never heard, processing the meaning of the words, and answering them in the form of a question without access to the Internet. The machine takes up a large room.
But will humans still claim dominance over the machine? Above is Johnny Cash’s version of the song about John Henry, performed live at Folsom Prison. For the warm-up Jeopardy match broadcast last month, Chimesfreedom wrote more about the epic human versus machine battle covered in songs about John Henry. In case you missed it, check out the post here.
Tonight on Jeopardy, one of the three contestants will be an IBM computer taking on two former champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. It is a battle of human against machine.
The classic human-versus-machine song is “John Henry.” Historians debate about who was the person who inspired the folk tale. But most seem to agree that somewhere at some point, there was a real person or persons who inspired the legend.
There are various versions of the song about the folk hero. In most versions of the story, John Henry is a railroad worker who, to save the jobs of his co-workers, claims he can beat the railroad company’s new steam-powered hammer. The tale and the song represent modern human beings’ attempts to maintain dignity in the face of rising corporate and technological powers. Although the various song versions differ, the lyrics from the song made famous by Pete Seeger include: John Henry told his captain, “A man ain’t nothin’ but a man, But before I let your steam drill beat me down, I’d die with a hammer in my hand. Lord, Lord. I’d dies with a hammer in my hand.”
There are many great versions of the song by people such as Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash. There’s a blues version with some great guitar playing by Mississippi Fred McDowell.
Here’s another version by Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Session Band that is a little less raw and a little more like a celebration of John Henry’s sacrifice.
John Henry beat the machine, but in the end he died. Tonight, we doubt there will be any deaths, but can Jennings and Rutter beat the machine? Please answer in the form of a question.
Post-Match Update: The computer won. But this match was just a warm up for a one-million dollar rematch that will be broadcast February 16, so there may still be hope for the humans.
