The Great Carbon-Based Hope - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

The Great Carbon-Based Hope - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Ken Jennings relives his battle with the machine:

[U]nlike us, Watson cannot be intimidated. It never gets cocky or discouraged. It plays its game coldly, implacably, always offering a perfectly timed buzz when it's confident about an answer. ... During my 2004 Jeopardy! streak, I was accustomed to mowing down players already demoralized at having to play a long-standing winner like me. But against Watson I felt like the underdog, and as a result I started out too aggressively, blowing high-dollar-value questions on the decade in which the first crossword puzzle appeared (the 1910s) and the handicap of Olympic gymnast George Eyser (he was missing his left leg).