Human Computation

Very fascinating. Beginning with the basic statistics on the volume hof hours people spend playing solitaire as it relates to the Panama Canal or the Empre State building was a great introduction for Luis to use to begin his presentation. It is interesting that we typically think of utilizing computing power in the technology sense, without realizing that the human brain has capabilities far beyond that of computers. If people can find basic enjoyment in playing a game, that processing and evaluative power can be used to coincide with the processing power of computers and servers on the Internet. The games Luis demonstrated and explained seemed to hold some of the basic fundamentals that have made solitaire so successful: simple, acheivable reward, realxing, and yet with still an element of excitement and connection with other people. Indexing the photos on the Web would seem to be an impossible, daunting task, but to put that task into a game and invite the time and cognitive thinking of thousands (or even millions) of humans makes the possibility certainly tangible. Luis addressed the sight-impaired benfefits of his games, but this technology has advances far beyond that. It is using the human element to address algorithyms that computers are not addressed yet to handle. It furthers the integration of the human brain and the computer processor into waht really could become a Matrix-like world. (as he joked about in his presentation)