Machine vs Human: The Disputed Territory (was: Syntax versusSemantics)

["Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>]

Bruce Cox wrote:

  There are those operations that: 
  
  1) cannot be performed by machine 
  
  2) can but aren't performed by machine
 
         [it isn't economical,   
          or we haven't figured 
         it out yet] 
 
  3) are performed by machines
  
  The boundary between 2 and 3 
  is a territory in dispute with daily 
  skirmishes on several fronts where 
  there are clear winners on one side 
  or the other, but with no end to the 
  overall conflict in sight.  

  I think the best we can expect is a 
  certain equilibrium between what 
  machines can profitably perform 
  and what humans will profitably perform 
  
  The disputed territory moves across the 
  landscape, but never completely disappears.


Awesome imagery Bruce! I enjoyed it so much that I created a graphic:

http://www.xfront.com/machine-vs-human-the-disputed-territory.gif


/Roger