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It begs the question why can't the operator watch a computer that does the operator's job for him. Is split second power allocation really done better by a huma
by pixie_ 14y ago
It begs the question why can't the operator watch a computer that does the operator's job for him. Is split second power allocation really done better by a human? Note I'm not suggesting computers are perfect operators, just less error prone.
- itcmcgrath 14y agoJust a note: 'It begs the question' doesn't mean what I think you think it means.
- jamesaguilar 14y ago1. if a statement or situation begs the question, it causes you to ask a particular question It's all very well talking about extra staff but it rather begs the question of how we're going to pay for them. -- Cambridge Idiom Dictionary, 2nd ed.
- AgentConundrum 14y agoYes, but that's not what the phrase originally meant. Its usage has changed over the years to the point where things like your source consider the new version to be accurate. However, there are many - including myself for a time - who still fight to preserve the original meaning. I stopped doing it when I realized that a) English is a fluid language, and b) some people - again, possibly including myself - simply liked to correct people to show off.
- jamesaguilar 14y agoYes, and we originally said things like thee and thy. And thy meant my, or some crap like that.
- FxChiP 14y ago"Thy" meant "your". Close enough!
- dakimov 14y agoHoratio, thou art a scholar!
- qu4z-2 14y agoAnd then y'all started talking to each other in plural all the time. (OK, so 'you' was used as a formal singular for a long time too, but I like my version better)
- robocat 14y agoI really love y'all and you'ze - because the grammatical construct exists in other languages such as Spanish. Those words are used by some English speaking cultures because they are useful. I wonder of the usage is emergent (independent rediscovery), or a cultural meme transferred from another language?
- noonespecial 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thou Another fascinating journey on the good ship Wikipedia.
- davekinkead 14y agoAs a philosophical term of art, 'Begging the question' is a logical fallacy whereby the conclusion of an argument is just the restatement of the premise(s). Commonly however, it is used to mean 'raises or leads the question'. Whether the common usage is correct or not depends on which side of the descriptive/prescriptive language fence one sits on. (A matter totally off topic)
- jamesaguilar 14y agoI am aware of its philosophical meaning. But normally one does not correct someone's usage of a word if that usage is in the dictionary, even if it might not have been fifty years ago, except if the topic under discussion is philosophy or logic.
- IvyMike 14y agoNotably, it does not mean what the logical grouping of those words would mean: "begs for the question to be asked". Of course, I believe I've seen "begs the question" used correctly exactly never, and there's an obvious need for a pithy idiom for "begs for the question to be asked", but we don't really have one. This once again awakens my suspicions that the English language is an elaborate practical joke. And I say that as a native speaker.
- bcoates 14y agoIt's just a way of filling time and distancing yourself from the question. Irregardless of pendantry about the definition you usually improve your sentence by just leaving it out.
- eric_h 14y ago"Irregardless of the pedantry[...]" I'm just going to assume that's intentional irony. Genius.
- philwelch 14y ago> and there's an obvious need for a pithy idiom for "begs for the question to be asked" "raises the question". Educated people saved the word "irony" once, "begs the question" isn't gone yet.
- IvyMike 14y agoThe misuse of "irony" is another one of those situations that seems to show that there's a missing word in the English language. To take one specific example from Alanis, (yes I'm going there), there's something peculiarly funny about "ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife" in a way that wouldn't be if you had "ten thousand turtles when all you need is a knife". I think we needed a word for "bittersweet happenstance", and people wrongly latched onto "irony".
- rbehrends 14y ago
- politician 14y agoI hate this trivially predictable response. Similar to observations of Betteridge's Law of headlines, "begs the question" corrections just seem like HN karma pumps.
- pixie_ 14y agoI don't give a shit about karma.
- TamDenholm 14y agoThis is exactly what i was thinking, even though the finish time of Eastenders might not be what the BBC says it is, its not like it would be hard to write a program to listen for the "Dun, dun dundundunduuun" and turn up the power.
- polymatter 14y agoThat's probably too brittle a solution. Eastenders ads, other programs etc. could conceivably play enough of the Eastenders theme tune to trigger unnecessary power surges.
- TamDenholm 14y agoWell it was a half sarcastic comment but theoretically you'd only have to have it active when the program is live, i'm sure theres some kind of computer system at the BBC that tells you whats on air at the time even if its unscheduled.
- kintamanimatt 14y agoThere probably isn't and the UK has more than just the BBC!
- enneff 14y agoI don't know. I haven't heard of any major outages as a result of this guy not doing his job properly, and if it's just the one guy... why replace him with software? It doesn't seem worth it.
- TamDenholm 14y agoWell i'm a typical software geek, if i see something that can be automated, i cant help but think of a way to do it, not saying that everything should be, but it almost always crosses my mind.
- melloclello 14y ago
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- polymatter 14y agoIf you're paying for an operator anyway, you may as well get him to do the job rather than spend all that money on a computer and have the operator watch the computer. The operator is likely to need rotating in a watching job like that too, further increasing costs (I believe CCTV operators need to be rotated every 20 minutes, but that may be misremembering). Unless you're suggesting that people can trust the computer to do it unobserved then there is little value in having the computer there. Which is a case, I might agree with. My first thought is I would absolutely love to have that job. I'd pay to have that job. Then I could optimise the hell out of it.
- scaphandre 14y agoI'm sure it is at least partly automated, but showing a computer screen doesn't make for as much drama on TV.
- alan_cx 14y agoCan you take a computer to court if something goes wrong? The British tabloids need some one to blame, and a computer isn't that photogenic. It has to be a human scape goat.