#i.b.m.

A Guide to Technical Careers (IBM) (circa 1980)

Past International President of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and one of very few recipients of the honored “Gold Cups” for outstanding close-up performance awarded by the I.B.M., Oscar Munoz has performed around the world and in nearly every conceivable venue from the Winter Garden in Blackpool, England to “Johnny’s” birthday party inhis parent’s garage…and in the same week! This humble magician isn’t trying to make a name for himself, but he keeps going and going like the “Ever Ready Rabbit” as his achievements and accolades pile up in the wake behind him.

In this week’s episode, Oscar talks about some of his achievements and venues where he has performed. His live can be an example of how others could follow to “make a name” for themselves, too. The message being sent this week is that it is not through seeking fame that it finds you.

Jeff Sikora, President of the Society of American Magicians, and Oscar Munoz, President of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and Scott Penrose, President of The Magic Circle speak about their vision for their respective organizations during their terms in office plus what more they want to accomplish.

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IBM Is Counting on Its Bet on Watson, and Paying Big Money for It http://nyti.ms/2e9ZL4s

Computerized and automated decision making is a long way from self-cognisis but, IBM has a system that can digest and interpret thousands of documents in minutes, can accurately and automatically make the same treatment recommendations for a given diagnosis as an oncologist and do better with treatment options in 30% of cases and, can no doubt be trained to order the investigations and make the initial diagnosis unaided.

If the numbers stack up so well for medicine then we should expect to see all levels of consumer automation appearing in the next few years, working just as full artificial intelligence, only within specific models. Any kind of decision making that you can imagine will no doubt morph to include a computerized A.I. as the decision maker, if not the hands actually at the wheel.

If a computer is accurate with its decision-making abilities then why are any more checks and balances needed than if a person had made any particular decision? Limits and boundaries must be programmed, for any given set of data a particular response is statistically zeroed in on with automated precision and, that is your answer.

Stocks and shares companies, resource planning and, traffic management (who controls those traffic lights?) all easily benefit from automated decision making that is faster and more accurate. I could have an A.I. to automatically manage my Facebook page and post what I like. The possibilities and opportunities are limitless. A real question is, what will we all do with our time once the mundane and those things that can be automated already are?

For IBM, hopefully, they will gear their operations so that they are able to offer software/services (or, parts of) across the broad spectrum of scales that are going to present opportunities. No-one in this day will pay a billion dollars for the code/service that makes a two-dollar application function, however, it may be something that is worth paying one-dollar per active instance for.

KING JAMES HRMH

Mark Forshaw - The Fuck (I.B.M. Remix)