As the world watched IBM supercomputer Watson wipe the floor with veteran Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, much was made of the impact this victory could have on society. With robots already replacing humans in assembly lines and factories internationally, this demonstration of a computer’s ability to learn over time and understand the nuances of language – including puns and jokes — raises the spectre of intelligent machines taking over even more advanced jobs.

According to Martin Ford, author of “The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future,” it is already happening.

Ford, a graduate of the University of Michigan, boasts more than 25 years in the field of technology and has seen the ever-growing influence of automation firsthand. Since starting his own business over 15 years ago, Ford has watched his company’s technology rapidly progress. “Even as a small business, I see the impact,” Ford said in a phone interview Wednesday. “Everything used to be done by telephone, the software sent by mail. Now we have the Internet.”

Beyond its social significance, the increase in automation at his own software company inspired Ford to explore the ramifications of burgeoning technology on the economy. “At the rate at which technology is advancing, repetitive, routine jobs are likely to get automated in the next 10 to 20 years,” Ford explained, and he doesn’t believe it will stop there. As an intelligent computer like Watson demonstrates, increasingly sophisticated machinery could soon replace humans in more and more complex, analytical fields.

“There is a limit to (human) capability. If you’re working at McDonalds, you’re probably not going to get a PhD,” Ford said, adding that as robotic intelligence is developed, it will begin to push against that capability. When machines grow beyond simple physical tasks to the skilled, mental work of middle- and high-level jobs, the dwindling opportunities for workers will continue to drag the economy deeper into recession. As Ford explains it, in a mass-market economy like the United States, the problem is simple: “There will be fewer and fewer people with the discretionary income to participate in the economy. You can’t drive the economy like that.”

Ford’s solution is unorthodox at best – he promotes a model of progressive taxation and the payment of a basic income to all citizens, whether they work or not – and a far cry from our modern capitalism. “It’s a radical idea in terms of politics,” he acknowledges, noting that the current conservative policies that seek to de-fund social welfare programs are “accelerating the process.” With automation gaining ground all fields of employment, Ford feels that economic change is all but inevitable and the government must prepare for the eventuality that technology may one day have the ability to put any American worker out of his job.

There is perhaps no greater evidence of this than Watson’s staggering win, which demonstrated computing ability far beyond even the sizable skill of Deep Blue, the IBM computer that defeated famed chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997. “The technology is pretty amazing,” Ford stated. “I’ve never seen a machine, a computer, handle language in this way.” But it is more, he insists, than mere understanding. Ford emphasized Watson’s machine learning as the true secret to its success: “A machine that can get better and better – it’s proven that its operating at a championship level. There are big implications for the future in that.”

Indeed, as companies like Google continue to develop supercomputers of their own, the expansion of automation seems increasingly likely. “We’re going to see it in the coming year,” Ford said, predicting that these types of technology will begin to encroach on higher skill jobs. “It’s going to be a huge issue for us as a society,” he stated.

As Watson and his contemporaries are designed to perform ever more complicated tasks, the impact on the economy looks increasingly bleak. With robots performing more jobs once reserved exclusively for college graduates, Ford predicts that the displacement of workers will only continue to grow: “It is unclear where the jobs of the future are going to come from.”

I was sad to pick up the March issue of Maximum PC magazine and find out that it was to be the last issue of the venerable computing magazine with Will Smith at the helm.

Smith, who has been editor of the magazine for the past 10 years, recently launched a new online venture called Tested, where he hopes to bring the same brutal honesty to tech reviews that he oversaw at the magazine formerly known as Boot.

Will eventually responded to nagging Facebook requests for an interview:

BLAST: Why did you leave Maximum PC?

WILL SMITH: I got the opportunity to launch a new site, Tested. I’m building it to be a slightly different kind of technology site, with brutally honest, no-holds barred Maximum PC-style reviews as well as in-depth how-tos about all kinds of interesting technology — consumer electronics, PCs, coffee tech, and anything else that’s interesting. I’ve worked for Maximum PC for 10 years, longer than I ever expected to work anywhere, and I absolutely loved every minute of it.

BLAST: What are you doing with Tested?

WS: So, yeah… I’m working with Norman Chan (of Maximum PC and PC Gamer) and the folks at Whiskey Media (who have launched several sites, including the gaming site GiantBomb to build Tested. They’ve built a really amazing software platform, and I’m thrilled to be able to leverage their software expertise with our content creation chops to build a tech site that’s more focused on helping people get more from the technology they buy than the traditional buy cycle. And, we want to build a really strong community of people who are as excited about technology as we are. I wrote a couple of editorials about why I’m stoked about Tested: http://www.tested.com/news/the-tested-manifesto/12/ http://www.tested.com/news/what-tested-is-and-why-im-crazy-excited-about-it/11/ and http://www.tested.com/news/dont-call-that-a-gadget/14/

BLAST: What was the biggest thing to happen to the PC during your tenure? I know it’s a big list.

WS: Wow, that’s a tough question. I think the biggest change is the commoditization of computing. In 2000, when I started at Maximum PC, I think I paid about $2000 for a Pentium 3, 933MHz machine. While that computer was OK for the time, today anyone can buy a machine for $500 that crushes that computer, and is probably portable to boot. In short, a fast enough computer is finally fast enough for me.

BLAST: What is the future of PC gaming?

WS: If I was a cynic, I’d just toss a link to Farmville in here. As I’ve said for the last decade, the demise of PC gaming has been greatly exaggerated. It’s definitely in a state of flux, and there are major hurdles that the traditional game publishers need to get over. But I see millions of people playing World of Warcraft and massive revenue for Zynga and it’s impossible to say that PC gaming is dying. There are ways for developers and publishers to make money from PC gamers without charging $50-$60 per copy, no one has really done too much experimentation with pricing traditional games on the PC.

Now, do I think we’re going to see any PC-exclusive AAA titles that are designed to push PC hardware, like Crysis? Absolutely not. There’s no way a publisher is going to be able to justify spending $30M building a PC-exclusive game that will only run on a few hundred thousand PCs. For traditional PC games, we can expect DirectX 9 games to be the standard until Microsoft and Sony launch new consoles.

BLAST: If you could keep any one piece of gear you’ve tested over the years, what would it have been?

WS: We had a really, amazingly cool thermal camera in a few years ago for a story. I think it cost $25k – $30k, but you could see things in the real world with Predator vision. That was pretty cool. For what it’s worth, the stuff that I’ve bought that has been really awesome are the iPhone, the Kindle, the HP MediaSmart (the Windows Home Server box).

BLAST: What are your thoughts on the downfall of print media — the magazine, the newspaper, etc?

WS: I think that mainstream, mass market print media, the newsweeklies, entertainment weeklies, and newspapers are going to have a bad decade. The story is completely different in enthusiast, niche publications. Small, enthusiast publications, as well as anyone who puts together a print product that offers unique content that’s well suited to the format, will continue to do well.

At Maximum PC, we built what I think is one of the few unified print/web products, with a print edition that showcases print’s strengths and a website that’s a destination unto itself, not a magazine subscription portal. Despite the terrible economy and overall newsstand decline last year, Maximum PC reached more people on the newsstand than we had in five years. At the same time our website grew something like 700 percent year over year.

I also mourn the decline of long-format content. There are very few sites that can afford to do big, feature-length stories; they seem to be unique to magazines. We’re going to give longer-format stories a try at Tested, but I’m not sure that the online audience is interested.

The Department of Homeland Security wants you to know that they have weighed and considered your privacy and individual liberties when they decided to implement a policy that allows border agents to seize your electronic devices like laptops, flash drives and MP3 players at border crossings and return them to you … within 30 days.

“Keeping Americans safe in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully screen materials entering the United States” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, in a statement. “The new directives announced today strike the balance between respecting the civil liberties and privacy of all travelers while ensuring DHS can take the lawful actions necessary to secure our borders.”

Homeland security says that only a very minuscule percentage of people crossing the border will be affected (only 46 laptops have been seized in the past 10 months out of more than 221 million people crossing the border) but the implications are serious. Strictly speaking, government agents can seize your electronics, copy all of the files contained therein and store them indefinitely.

But let’s be even more frank. The government is probably not going to take your laptop. Border agents don’t care about your music collection or episodes of “Leverage,” but there are some questions about the effectiveness of this policy. If a terrorist was keeping electronic files, they could store the files in a microSD card that’s smaller than a fingernail. It’s a lot easier to hide a microSD card than it is to hide a laptop.

The ACLU has filed suit, challenging the policy.

One way to ensure your files stay yours is to execute redundancy. If you have files that you need access to wherever you go, you could consider Google Docs or one of the many online file storage sites. Backing up documents at home is, of course, always smart computing practice. Buy a portable hard drive if you don’t already own one.

Old keyboards from the 80s aren’t exactly washable, but they took a licking and kept on typing. One of the computers in my parents’ house still has an old Dell keyboard that suffered the indignity of having had an entire glass of milk spilled over the top of it — the result of an errant joystick movement. It still types.

That said, the brand new Kensington Washable Keyboard looks and feels indescribably retro. The white 104-key device with full size and full depth keys feels like typing in a bygone era in computing. I even fired up Doom 2 for a little spin around the arrow keys.

The keyboard is no relic, however. That old Dell keyboard still types, but it also still sticks from the milky punishment.

You can immerse this baby in soap and water and scrub it down like a dinner dish and come out with a new, clean keyboard.

The board also has antimicrobial coating to prevent the growth of molds, mildews and fungi that can get you sick.

Let’s face it, the keyboard is one of the dirtiest surfaces you touch all day. In the newsroom, we often share old keyboards, and they’re just grungy. I read a study once that claimed that the average keyboard holds more bacteria that a toilet seat!

Try trying to rinse out your illuminated keyboard when it gets dirty. (You could try Cyber Clean though.)

I soaked the Kensington and put it through scrubbing and rinsing and then let it dry. Let me tell you, putting a computer keyboard under the sink is NOT a natural task. The whole time I felt like I was breaking some major commandment of computing. But lo and behold, once the keyboard sat for a few and dried, it worked perfectly.

My only complaint about the keyboard is that the folding legs at the top are a little cheap. I broke one of the little legs by accident, which is enough to prevent the keyboard from being a perfect “10.”

The keyboard is comfortable to type on. A lot of newer keyboards have taken a page out of the laptop world with shallow keys, but this is a regular keyboard that feels very traditional.

With that take on things, the Kensington Washable Keyboard is a winner. It’s a regular keyboard. It’s wired — no batteries to replace. It has all the standard, regular keys that a keyboard should have. It’s the perfect solution for an office or a computer user that just wants to clean up a bit.

Dell, the personal computer giant was slapped in mid-May with a lawsuit from the state of New York for “engaging in bait and switch financing tactics and failing to provide their customers with adequate customer service.”

The lawsuit, filed by New York State Attorney General, Andrew M. Cuomo, accuses Dell and its money arm, Dell Financial Services, of “luring consumers to purchase its products with advertisements that offered attractive ‘no interest’ and/or ‘no payment’ financing promotions,” according to a statement from Cuomo’s office.

In reality, even customers with good credit were paying interest rates as high as 20% without ever being told that they had not qualified for the promotional rates, Cuomo said.

In the petition, Dell’s rebate practices are also brought into question. “Further, although Dell induces consumers to purchase equipment by offering rebates, many consumers who timely submit their rebate paperwork do not receive their promised rebate and get a ‘runaround’ when they subsequently contact Dell to inquire about it.”

The lawsuit also alleges that Dell Financial Services billed customers incorrectly on returns, as well as canceled orders.

“Although many consumers repeatedly contacted Dell and/or DFS to advise them of the errors, DFS did not suspend its collection activity and Dell failed to expeditiously credit consumers’ accounts, even after assuring consumers it would do so … as a result, many consumers have been subjected to harassing collection calls for months on end and have had their credit ratings harmed.”

Financial shenanigans not withstanding, Dell’s customer service and support has rightfully also come under attack. “At Dell, customer service means no service at all. Dell’s consumers were intentionally misled, and they had to pay for that privilege.” Cuomo said.

Customers often faced “a nightmarish array of obstacles in their quest for service.” Allegations include:

• Repeatedly failing to provide timely onsite repair to consumers who purchased service contracts promising “onsite” and expedited service
• Pressuring consumers, including those who purchased service contracts promising “onsite” repair, to remove the external cover of their computer and remove, reinstall, and manipulate hardware components
• Discouraging consumers from seeking technical support. Those who called Dell’s toll-free number were subjected to long wait times, repeated transfers and frequent disconnections.
• Using defective “refurbished” components to repair or replace consumer equipment.

The lawsuit aims to make Dell and Dell Financial Services pay restitution to consumers who have been affected by these service shortcomings on the part of Dell. The suit also seeks to make certain that Dell and DFS do not “engage in deceptive, illegal, and fraudulent practices in the future.”

Dell is the No. 2 computer distributor in the US. If true, the New York allegations are a startling turnaround for a company that once prided itself on customer support and satisfaction.

Dear EarthTalk: As an online gamer, I spend a lot of time in front of my computer. What’s the environmental impact? And are “greener” PCs available?  – Bob Grant, Burlington, Vt.

Online gamers and other heavy computer users are definitely leaving an environmental mark. Depending on when it was made and how it was designed, a standard desktop PC can use anywhere from 60-300 watts when in use, while an inefficient gaming PC with powerful graphics card, multiple hard drives and optical drives, flash memory reader and a 30-inch LCD might consume as much as 750 watts, or about as much as a typical refrigerator. Until July of 2007, government Energy Star requirements only measured a computer’s energy use while in standby mode, which allowed the majority of brands to carry the label.  

New stricter efficiency requirements have brought greener models. You’ll find the largest selection from companies like Dell and Hewlett Packard. Many businesses use the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) to assist in the purchase of greener computing systems, and the evaluations can be useful to consumers, too. EPEAT evaluates and rates computing equipment on 28 efficiency and sustainability criteria, awarding them bronze, silver or gold for overall performance. 

Technology company VIA is well regarded as an industry leader in low-wattage processors (central processing units or CPUs), with some barely sipping only a dozen or so watts from the power supply. Some typical VIA designs can outperform competitors using only 23 watts, or less than half the power called for by Energy Star specifications. Of course graphics cards used by PC gamers are serious energy hogs. Your top-end ATI or nVidia card will render great graphics, but use 300 watts or more. Newer cards are better, but much depends on their use. The best advice is to buy only the graphics power you need.  

One of the easiest ways to save on computer power is to use technology that automatically rests when you do, and to shut your computer down when you’re not using it. Windows XP allows users to configure power management settings, and Vista Ultimate lets you configure power-saving options in even more ways. Vista can actually throttle its power consumption for some tasks and power down at other times. If you’re just typing a Microsoft Word document, performance will back down, whereas if you are editing video in a powerful program like Adobe Premier Pro, Vista will use all the processing power available.  

Bear in mind that screen savers are not energy savers. In fact, power-down features may not work if you have a screen saver activated. Happily, LCD color monitors do not need screen savers. In terms of shutting down, while PCs use a small amount of energy when they start up, it’s considerably less than the energy used when they are on for long periods of time. Consider turning off the monitor if you aren’t going to use your PC for more than 20 minutes, and both the CPU and monitor if you’re not going to use your PC for more than two hours. 

If you’re concerned about the “wear and tear” of turning PCs on and off, don’t be. Most PCs reach the end of their “useful” life due to advances in technology long before the effects of being switched on and off multiple times can have a negative impact on their service life. 

CONTACTS: Energy Star, http://www.energystar.gov/; EPEAT, http://epeat.net/; Recycling an old monitor, http://www.via.com/.  

Dear EarthTalk: Vegetarians and vegans are so self-righteous about not eating meat and how meat eating is so bad for the environment. How true are these claims? Frank Doolittle, Sudbury, Mass.

There has never been a better time to go vegetarian. Mounting evidence suggests that meat-based diets are not only unhealthy, but that just about every aspect of meat production-from grazing-related loss of cropland, to the inefficiencies of feeding vast quantities of water and grain to cattle, to pollution from “factory farms”-is an environmental disaster with wide and sometimes catastrophic consequences. 

There are 20 billion head of livestock on Earth, more than triple the number of people. According to the Worldwatch Institute, global livestock population has increased 60 percent since 1961, and the number of fowl being raised for food has nearly quadrupled in the same time period, from 4.2 billion to 15.7 billion.  

The 4.8 pounds of grain fed to cattle to make one pound of beef represents a colossal waste of resources in a world teeming with hungry and malnourished people. According to Vegfam, a 10-acre farm can support 60 people growing soy, 24 people growing wheat, 10 people growing corn-but only two raising cattle. 

Food First’s Frances Moore Lapp© says to imagine sitting down to an eight-ounce steak. “Then imagine the room filled with 45 to 50 people with empty bowls… For the feed cost of your steak, each of their bowls could be filled with a full cup of cooked cereal grains.” Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer says that reducing U.S. meat production 10 percent would free grain to feed 60 million people.  

U.S. animal farms generate billion of tons of animal waste every year, which the Environmental Protection Agency says pollute our waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. The infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill dumped 11 million gallons of oil into Prudoe Bay, but the relatively unknown 1995 New River hog waste spill in North Carolina poured 25 million gallons of excrement into the water, killing 14 million fish and closing 364,000 acres of shell fishing beds. Hog waste spills have caused the rapid spread of Pfiesteria piscicida, which has killed a billion fish in North Carolina alone.  

Other than polluting water, beef production alone uses more water than is used in growing our entire fruit and vegetable crop. And over a third of all raw materials and fossil fuels consumed in the U.S. are used in animal production. Meat also increases our carbon footprints. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock around the world contribute more greenhouse gases (mostly methane) to the atmosphere-18 percent of our total output-than emissions from all the world’s cars and trucks. 

“There is no question that the choice to become a vegetarian or lower meat consumption is one of the most positive lifestyle changes a person could make in terms of reducing one’s personal impact on the environment,” says Christopher Flavin of the Worldwatch Institute. “The resource requirements and environmental degradation associated with a meat-based diet are very substantial.” 

CONTACTS: Food First, http://www.foodfirst.org/; UN Food and Agriculture Organization, http://www.fao.org/; Worldwatch Institute, http://www.worldwatch.org/. 

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

It’s Friday afternoon. It’s been a long week. Here’s one of those email forwards that was too hilarious to ignore.

After going through a virus attack,

losing a hard drive,

fighting off hackers,

upgrading all my software,

installing fire-walls,

being threatened with being cut-off by my email provider,

and a host of other problems…

I have fixed my computer…

and NOW it works exactly the way I want it to!