We often think of a computer as the laborious mechanism under or on our desk that provides access to our information sources and the sometimes lifelike mechanism we can blame for all things gone awry. There are always those who believe that computers will take over for humans in the far (and not so far) future. In fact, that has already taken place. DATAVERSITY brought this topic to us in their article, “How Cognitive Computing is Changing What a “Computer” Is.”

Adrienne Lafrance recently wrote for The Atlantic on the topic of cognitive computing: “People used to be computers. That is, for hundreds of years, computing was the work of humans, and very often women. Then, in the mid-20th century, machines began to take on the bulk of computing work, and the definition of “computer” changed.”

So if a computer becomes much more like a human being in the sense that it integrates data and can make decisions, it might be coming full circle.

Melody K. Smith

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