does not compute

Albert Einstein's Time Card, 1944 (from: Retronaut)

"Although words with multiple meanings give English a linguistic richness, they can also create ambiguity: putting money in the bank could mean depositing it in a financial institution or burying it by the riverside; drawing a gun could mean pulling out a firearm or illustrating a weapon.
     We can navigate through this potential confusion because our brain takes into account the context surrounding words and sentences. So, if putting money in the bank occurs in a context that includes words like savings and investment, we can guess the meaning of the phrase. But, for computers, so-called lexical ambiguity poses a major challenge.
     'Ambiguity is the greatest bottleneck to computational knowledge acquisition, the killer problem of all natural language processing,' explained Dr Stephen Clark. 'Computers are hopeless at disambiguation – at understanding which of multiple meanings is correct – because they don’t have our world knowledge.'”
— University of Camebridge
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Big Book? Little Woman?

From: Lost and Found in Prague

I wonder which characters of 21st century fiction will be considered stereotypes a hundred years from now?

"Having recently decided to re-read Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women series (the last time being when I was around 10 years old), I’ve noticed there are many aspects to the story that I’m struggling to come to terms with. What started off as a desire to expand my knowledge of the Classics, has turned into an analysis of the rampant sexist stereotypes within the books.
     ‘Tomboy’ Jo is one of the best examples. In the beginning of the novel, Jo exerts examples of ‘boyish’ behaviour which are slowly stamped out of her by the end of the series. Despite claiming she will never marry, she does indeed marry and have children, becoming the very matronly figure she used to be so adamantly against. Everyone in the novel considers this a great improvement."

— Emily Jane, Feministing
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