From the July 4 special on his reaction to Scooter Libby's pardon, explaining the historical imperatives for Bush and Cheney to resign, was the Gettysburg Address of K.O.'s commentaries:
"I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war. I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient.... I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but to stifle dissent. I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought. I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents. I accuse you of handing part of this Republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience and letting him run roughshod over it..."
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Super Crunchers
Ian Ayres thought "The End of Intuition" would be a great name for his new book -- until he ran the numbers and saw that more people would buy a book called "Super Crunchers," reports The Economist (9/15/07). After all, this is a book about how "data and the computer power now available make it possible for automated processes to surpass human experts in fields as diverse as rating wines, writing film dialogue and choosing titles for books." Indeed, when Ian used Google AdWords to test which title attracted more clicks, "Super Crunchers" won by 63 percent.
Ian, a Yale University professor of law and management, sees automated decision-making as posing a threat to a range of job professions. For example, bank-loan officers, who used to be "well-paid and responsible" have been reduced to call-center operatives, "paid peanuts to parrot the words a computer prompts." Doctors must also now "face up to the fact that computers can diagnose illnesses better than they can." He sees the death of intuition and expertise as threats even when it comes to his own profession: "When teaching small children to read, for example, tightly scripted lessons, their exact content and timing honed by randomized trials, do best."
"Super Crunchers" does not, however, "touch on what Nicholas Nassim Taleb calls 'Black Swans': rare events that are unpredictable with or without crunching numbers." And David Leonhardt, in a New York Times review, takes Ian to task for faulty attribution of some of his sources. David also thinks Ian "is simply too optimistic about the impact data analysis is having," noting, for example, that "evidence-based medical treatment ... is still far from the norm in this country." He concludes: "The Super Crunchers, aided by the explosion of inexpensive computing power, do their job remarkably well. The next step is finding some Super Persuaders."
Ian, a Yale University professor of law and management, sees automated decision-making as posing a threat to a range of job professions. For example, bank-loan officers, who used to be "well-paid and responsible" have been reduced to call-center operatives, "paid peanuts to parrot the words a computer prompts." Doctors must also now "face up to the fact that computers can diagnose illnesses better than they can." He sees the death of intuition and expertise as threats even when it comes to his own profession: "When teaching small children to read, for example, tightly scripted lessons, their exact content and timing honed by randomized trials, do best."
"Super Crunchers" does not, however, "touch on what Nicholas Nassim Taleb calls 'Black Swans': rare events that are unpredictable with or without crunching numbers." And David Leonhardt, in a New York Times review, takes Ian to task for faulty attribution of some of his sources. David also thinks Ian "is simply too optimistic about the impact data analysis is having," noting, for example, that "evidence-based medical treatment ... is still far from the norm in this country." He concludes: "The Super Crunchers, aided by the explosion of inexpensive computing power, do their job remarkably well. The next step is finding some Super Persuaders."
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