But Malcolm Gladwell (in Blink) argues that what we think of as intuition is actually deeply ingrained and very fast-acting pattern recognition. (Do I have a written job description for "human"?)

I'm getting stupider, Algernon!

I believe the scientific term for this is dumbening.

Us humans can never be replaced by robots, because robots will never have midichlorians.

Either Jesse IS Malcolm Gladwell, or she's just intuitive.

I have the vanishingly rare opportunity of being alone in my house for approximately the next half-hour. I can't think of the last time this happened. And what am I doing? The same thing I do at work all day. Sigh.

I believe the scientific term for this is dumbening.

Ah. You've embiggened my mind, brenda!

Don't worry you're still smarter than the president.

more and more I think that 'intuition' is just experience that you don't notice in the background

When the revolution comes, you're totally first up to be recycled for fuel.

I, on the other hand, will make sure that apparently capricious leaps in decision making are key to my success as a whatever.

Or, as CJ Cherryh might put it -- flux thinking. I'm quite expert at believing two contradictory things at once. They better not make computers that can do that too.

Do you know if there have been lessons learnt from chess-playing research that have been parlayed into things that touch our lives?

Well, Turing was interested in the idea of a chess-playing algorithm during WWII ( [link] ), so there's that.

I have no idea how this conversation started or where it's going, and will probably wander away before I find out. But there it is.

bon bon, I have this book of Kakuro puzzles, and am regularly stumped by the "Gentle" ones, so I feel your pain. On the upside, it's improved my mental arithmetic, and last night I was able to count up the bonuses imparted by my Gowayser, cat ears, anime amulet, and utility girdle without having to go "...eighteen, and that gives me three, so nineteen twenty twenty-one..." Anything that makes me a better Munchkin player can't be all bad, right?

Oh, I lied. I won't wander away. I will run off to hide from amych under the bed.

sooo cooooold.

And I like the cold. But the cold now, it is too much. I think cold in conjunction with damp is what doesn't work for me.

Also, I forgot that here, my hair turns to ass.

And I have no idea what I can do to fix my dad's computer. It's so sick. And he won't put the virus killer program on it. It's slower than my dialup, and he has broadband.

Oh, I lied. I won't wander away. I will run off to hide from amych under the bed.

Wait, so Emily is a Roomba?