Can computers outsmart us?

Nalaka Gunawardene and Vindana Ariyawansa

One of the most dreaded expressions in our times is, ‘’The computer isdown’’. That shows how much we have come to rely on computers for daily functions at work, at home and in society.

We have come a long way with computers. The first computers were very large, expensive and had limited capabilities. But beginning in the 1980s, personal computers have revolutionized most aspects of our working and personal lives. And the rise of computers is not over yet.

Today, we start off with the fascinating world of computer feats and then move on to other interesting facts and figures.

1. On February 17, 2011, a supercomputer owned by the IBM Corporation beat two veteran quizzers to win a high profile game in the long-running US quiz show called Jeopardy. The supercomputer won with US$ 77,147, while its nearest rival Ken Jennings, a 74-time winner of the popular trivia quiz, came in second with US$ 24,000. Brad Rutter, who has in previous appearances won a total of US$ 3.3 million, was third with US$ 21,600. IBM plans to donate the computer’s winnings to charity. What was the name of this quiz-winning supercomputer?

2. Supercomputers have enormous processing power to go through millions of possible answers, situations or combinations in a fraction of a second. On May 11, 1997, another IBM supercomputer named Deep Blue created history when it won a six-game match by two wins to one with three draws against the then world chess champion. Who lost that historic game to Deep Blue?

3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has always interested and intrigued computer scientists, whose ‘holy grail’ or ultimate challenge is to create a machine-based intelligence that mimics the human mind in all its nuances and not just in raw processing power. This is proving much harder than creating chess-playing or quiz-winning computers: human beings are capable of a wide range of emotions some of which – such as intuition and sense of humour – are still not within the capabilities of advanced AI systems. A fictional icon for most AI researchers is HAL 9000, the sentient on-board computer of the Discovery One spacecraft in Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In that name, what did the letters HAL stand for?

4. Legendary British film maker Stanley Kubrick, who co-wrote and directed 2001: A Space Odyssey, remained obsessed with the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) even after HAL became the best known character of that movie. During the last 20 years of his life, he was working on another film, which features a highly advanced robot in the future, designed to resemble a human child and to feel love for its human owners. Unfortunately, Kubrick died in 1999 before finishing the movie. Which well known Hollywood personality took over the project, co-writing, directing and producing the film which was released in 2001 as AI Artificial Intelligence, also known simply as AI?

5. Just as 2001: A Space Odyssey was inspired by an Arthur C Clarke short story called ‘The Sentinel’ written in 1948, the movie AI Artificial Intelligence was partly based on another science fiction story, titled ‘Supertoys Last All Summer Long’. First published by a leading British author in 1969, the story deals with humanity in an age of intelligent machines and of the aching loneliness on an overpopulated future where child creation is controlled. Who wrote this story?

6. The ‘Turing Test’ is a test of a computer’s ability to demonstrate intelligence. A human judge engages in a natural language conversation with one human and one machine, each of which tries to appear human. All participants are separated from one another. If the judge cannot reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine is said to have passed the Turing Test.

Name the British mathematician and computer scientist who proposed this test in his 1950 paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence, which opens with the words: “I propose to consider the question, ‘Can machines think?’”

7. Computer processing power has been increasing rapidly. Many of us don’t realise that even the basic mobile phones we use today pack more processing power than did the entire Apollo 11 spaceship that took astronauts to the Moon in 1969! Speaking of which, a rocket scientist who was principally responsible for sending men to the Moon once remarked: “Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft...and the only one that can be mass produced with unskilled labour!” Whose words are these?

8. In 1933, a Sri Lanka born author wrote a novel in English, Grass for My Feet, which was published in London. It was acclaimed by critics as ‘an evocation of life in the village setting in which he had grown up in the south of the island’, and in some ways confirmed that ‘a Ceylonese could handle English as well as the leading Indian writers known at that time to the West, for example Mulk Raj Anand and R K Narayan’. This author lived overseas for many years and returned to Sri Lanka in 1989 shortly before his death. Who was he?

9. Who was he: educationist, scholar and politician, he was one time editor of the Sinhala Dictionary, and Leader of the House and Home Affairs Minister in the State Council. After retiring from politics, he served as our representative in New Delhi from 1942 – 44, which was the country’s first diplomatic posting.

10. In the series of Tintin comic books created by the Belgian artist Hergé, one of the most popular is Tintin in Tibet, which was published in original French in 1959, the same year that the current (14th) Dalai Lama fled his Himalayan kingdom and went into exile in India. In 2006, the Dalai Lama officially honoured Tintin at a ceremony in Brussels, for promoting Tibetan culture and values. The story is about Tintin’s friendship with a Chinese boy, whose plane crashes in the Himalayas. When Tintin goes to rescue him, he encounters Tibetan monks and the mythical yeti - the Abominable Snowman. What is the name of that Chinese boy?

11. Dreadful burns are caused by unsafe kerosene lamps that are used by some poor families. The ‘Safe Bottle Lamp Project’ launched in Sri Lanka in 1992 is the brain child of a surgeon who designed a simple safe lamp that could be easily mass produced at low cost using recycled glass.

He and his non-profit foundation have distributed over 800,000 of ‘Sudeepa’ safe lamps free to needy families. Who is the Lankan surgeon that heads this humanitarian initiative, whose work has been recognized by the Rolex Award, Reader’s Digest, BBC World Challenge among others?

12. The Index Translationum is a list of books translated in the world, an international bibliography of translations. The Index Translationum was created in 1932, and has been maintained by UNESCO since 1946. According to its latest available data, the most translated author is Walt Disney Productions, since the Index counts the Walt Disney Company, employing many writers, as a single source. This is followed by a British woman author who died in 1976. Who is this second most translated author in the world?

13. Since the Index Translationum counts translations of individual books, authors with many books with few translations can rank higher than authors with a few books with more translations. So, for example, while the Bible is the single most translated book in the world, it does not rank in the top ten of the index. Which French author, who lived from 1828 to 1905, is the third most translated in the world, according to the latest database?

14. In mid February, the travelling version of the prestigious British wildlife and natural history film festival Wildscreen came to Colombo courtesy of the British Council. This enabled Lankans to see some of the world’s best wildlife documentaries and to interact with visiting British and local film makers. In which British city is the Wildscreen festival held every other year – this city is also considered to be the centre of wildlife film making in that country.

15. The Wildscreen Film Festival was founded in 1982 by a leading British conservationist. He had earlier founded the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and designed its famous Panda logo. As an ornithologist, he not only studied birds but also painted them. His pioneering work in conservation contributed greatly to the shift in policy of the International Whaling Commission and signing of the Antarctic Treaty. Who is this remarkable scientist, who also represented Britain at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal in sailing?

Answers will be published next week

Last week’s answers

1. 19 March
2. 1913
3. Then British colony of New Zealand
4. 1979 (it became part of international law in 1981)
5. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
6. Michelle Bachelet
7. Sudath Prajiv Pasqual
8. King George VI (Lived: 1895 – 1952; Reigned 1936 – 1952)
9. Lausanne, Switzerland
10. Melanin
11. Yasmine Gooneratne
12. Kandy to Jaffna
13. Colombo and Kandy
14. Economics
15. Karnataka

Last week’s winners

Answer our Wiz quiz and win valuable book vouchers from Sarasavi Book Shop. Mail your answers to Wiz quiz, Daily News, Lake House, No 35, D R Wijewardena Mawatha, Colombo 10 or email to punch@dailynews.lk with your address, ID and contact numbers to reach us on or before Friday.

In case there are more than one entry with equal number of correct answers, winners will be picked by a draw. Winners can get their vouchers from the Manager of new Sarasavi Book Shop Nugegoda.

Last week’s winners

First place – Kaushalya Ariyarathna, Colombo
Second place – Harshana Dissanayake, Kottawa
Third place – Upeksha Kodithuwakku