"I think that perhaps Cory Doctorow is right. The first true artificial intelligences will come not from some lab, but from spammers trying to past automated Turing tests."

from here:

"xrumer2.JPGXRumer is a Windows program that posts forum, blog, private message, and guestbook spam with the aim of boosting search engine rankings. It is able to bypass techniques commonly used by many websites to deter automated spam, such as account registration, CAPTCHAs, and e-mail activation before posting, however the older versions still had trouble with 'fancier' CAPTCHA. Not anymore.

"This time those evil Russian bastards have not only managed to crack Googles captcha, but they've also figure out how to beat those horrible 'click on the cutest cat' style CAPTCHA tests. It's amazing!"

CAPTCHA is that thing that's supposed to verify that you're human by having you read distorted text and type it in.

I find it depressing that humans expend so much energy and cleverness in order to rip others off.

(This feeling compounded by recent reports of stolen solar panels, wiring from streetlights, etc., etc., to say nothing of the peculiarities of the world's financial systems...)

~ Becky in Tucson