My Computer is My Baby

Our discussions this week featured Watson, the computer who won Jeopardy! and thoroughly trounced its (or his) human opponents. On Thursday, my group considered how similar humans are to computers. Because of the other class I'm taking with Professor Dalke, Gender and Technology, I've learned to be wary of drawing boundaries between things without serious consideration. Therefore I suggest that we are not very different from computers – they are extensions (or perhaps even mirrors) of ourselves. Computers' abilities seem as limitless as the human imagination; already with computers we are able to communicate more efficiently, explore our interests and try on roles with relative anonymity, and complete tasks that would otherwise be impossible. I'm aware that an overdose of Asimov could cause people to fear the advances in technology that led to a computer besting humans at their own game, so to speak. However, I think it is more useful to consider Watson and similarly capable computers as part of another stage of human evolution.