Do Computers Lie?
It was a seminal moment in my formulative years. Like passing your driving test or the first ever kiss; I have never forgotten the moment I actually impressed my history teacher. He came marching into the class room, resplendent in his multi-coloured bow tie and flyaway quiff that constantly required rearranging by a theatrical toss of the head or sweep of the gesticulating hand.
“The camera never lies. Discuss!” He barked, pointing at the boy three places to my right, then moving down the line asking for responses. I can’t remember what the other boys said, but when he got to me my planned answer was still intact.
“The camera doesn’t lie sir,” I blurted confidently. “It is the way the photographer frames his shot and what he chooses to include or exclude in it, that creates the essence of the picture.”
Sitting back confidently I basked for a few seconds in the evident surprise on his face as he contemplated an intelligent response from a hitherto not altogether intelligent pupil.
I was reminded of this, when contemplating the humans Vs computers debate that I recently explored in my previous posting “Monkey Business” where I questioned how Amazon’s computer algorithms had somehow reached the staggering conclusion that I would like to buy Phil Collins’ Greatest Hits.
I fear now, the situation has got even worse. I placed another order on Amazon the other day for some books in my favoured genres of business, dictators, genocide etc and then invited my wife to make some selections too, as she is always on at me about only being charged for p&p once. She ordered half a dozen chick-lit books. You know the kind – they are characterised by Sylvia Amenabar on the chick lit blog Trashionista who “believes men are dogs”.
So, there were six new titles in my Amazon basket all with roughly the same plot:
Girl gets dumped. Girl eats chocolate. Girl meets man in Cafe Nero and has torrid affair. Man turns out to be married. Man refuses to leave wife as is standing as Tory candidate for Croyden South. Girl despairs and embarks on a man-ban only to unwittingly fall in love with the formerly plain boy in accounts with Clark Kent qualities etc etc.
And sure as eggs are eggs a few days later, Amazon sends me an email recommending six more pastel coloured books with varying degrees of variation on the plot above.
And so it seems that Rebecca Blood in her book “Practical advice on creating and maintaining your blog” is bang on when she says that computers using keyword algorithms can never replace a human aggregator of information who can make a judgment based on instinct or opinion, not what the computer has concluded.
Now, I would never say never, but meanwhile, do computers lie? No, but despite all the advances we have made they are just as they were in the beginning – only as good as what we tell them.
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