zodiac29 Dec 2005

I understand there have been cases before where hoboes exposed to the rudiments of Algebra independently 'invent' all the rudiments of, um, Calculus and Table Manners. I guess I was asking how much a person (or supersupercomputer) would have to know in order to do that. More realistically, I was probably wondering if you could tell a supersupercomputer about, say, single-celled organisms and have it predict Pop Idol.

On a more-or-less unrelated note, a woman named Barbara Rickard of West Sussex, England, ran a mile in 8 minutes, 14 seconds, wearing Wellington boots filled with custard.