Watsons all over, the singularity is here

Seattle police turn to computer software to predict, fight crime

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and Chief John Diaz announced today that police have begun using new “predictive policing” software in the city’s East and Southwest precincts in an effort to reduce crime through analysis of data on crime and location. “This technology will allow us to be proactive rather than reactive in responding to crime,” said McGinn during a news conference. “This investment, along with our existing hot spot policing work, will help us to fulfill the commitments we made in the ’20/20′ plan to use data in deploying our officers to make our streets safer.” According to a Los Angeles Times article on predictive policing employed by the LAPD, predictive policing is rooted in the notion that it is possible, through sophisticated computer analysis of information about previous crimes, to predict where and when crimes will occur. Based on models for predicting aftershocks from earthquakes, predictive policing forecasts the locations where crime is likely to occur.

What is really going on? These are varieties of the machines pioneered by IBM. The machine that won the jeopardy game. Tuned to analyze crime reports. Where do the crime reports come from? Cops, the machine teaches the cops about computer entry. Cops even use blogs, these machines can read. Where do the cops go? Where the machine tells them to.

Are you getting the picture?

The singularity has arrived when humans work, literally, for the machine.  This thing will print pay checks, evaluate and recommend bonuses, order supplies, and with human help, manage inventory. This thing will be in the courts, the mayors office, pension fund managers have them.

In about one year, these things will be virtual web bots, anybody can have as many as they want, all of them fairly brighter than their human partners.

How did all this happen?
Here is my partial list, names are missing, but I have:
1) Ben Franklin, the electron
2) Morse, Baudot, Nyquist  DC signaling over wire, fax
3) Maxwell, Hertz, and DeForest These get you high frequency, electron charge tools.
4) Hartley, Shannon;  standard radio, spectral analysis, computer architecture
5) Schrodinger, Schockley,Noyce The microprocessor

And 30 years later, the machines are taking over.