Watson, come here, I want you.

[spaceroo]

(I'm sure this isn't an original thought, although it occurred to me independently, I swear!)

Did anyone else who watched the three-part "Jeopardy IBM Challenge" notice that "Watson's" avatar makes it appear the computer is planning a Global Thermonuclear War while pondering answers to the questions?

Comments

[xolo]

I'm really amazed that didn't occur to me. I'm usually pretty bloody-minded. What did come to mind for me was the old Novell 'caterpillar' display, that used to show on the server console when it was locked.

[spaceroo]

"Missile tracks" was one of the first thoughts that came to my mind but I couldn't quite place why the gut reaction was so strong. For a while I was thinking of the old Missile Command arcade game, but this morning the light just switched on for "Wargames". One Google image search later I was struck by just how uncanny the resemblance was. (Even down to the colors.)

It might be fun to show this to someone in IBM marketing. ;^)

[xolo]

Once you've said that, it's pretty much impossible to see it any other way. You should definitely tell them, yes :)