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Art, Design and Science, Engineering and Medicine Frontier Collaborations Ideation, Translation, Realization: Seed Idea Group Summaries (2016) / Chapter Skim
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Harnessing Computers Worldwide to Address Urgent, Global Issues
Pages 45-48

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From page 45...
... SUMMARY Roberto Molar Candanosa, NAKFI Science Writing Scholar Texas A&M University "Harnessing the World Brain to Address Urgent, Global Issues" requires access to the minds of billions of people worldwide in an attempt to provide human intelligence to solve tasks that might be too complicated even for the largest computers. This network of brainpower is the global brain, a concept that serves as the namesake for the proposed smartphone app called G-Brain.
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From page 46...
... Mechanical Turk enables people to complete repetitive tasks such as analyzing items from shopping receipts, typing text from certain images, or transcribing data -- all tasks that currently require human intelligence. G-Brain would be rolled out the way other phone apps are.
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From page 47...
... That team member also said tasks for which researchers usually struggle to compensate workers would be more accessible with G-Brain, because the app would outsource work to people that could potentially benefit from modest compensations while the company makes a profit. Other complex instances in which the team envisioned G-Brain could be useful include the following hypothetical situations: • Using human workers to speed up current methods of analyzing satellite images to locate various things, such as a missing airplane • Using human workers to facilitate mapping of damaged areas after natural disasters • Using human workers to count the number of open windows within a given area to analyze relationships between possible air exchange, pollution levels, and incidences of certain diseases Some tasks with G-Brain would require instant, live interaction between task requesters and workers.
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From page 48...
... In conclusion, the team agreed that the G-Brain smart phone app, or something very much like it, would be useful as a way of gathering large quantities of data that require human input.
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Key Terms

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  • global issues

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  • computational power
  • doctoral students
  • healthcare providers

  • smart phone
  • mechanical turk
  • people worldwide
  • global brain
  • provide human

  • prove useful
  • currently require
  • complex tasks
  • facilitate mapping
  • shopping receipts

  • science writing
  • help scientific
  • increasing public
  • human input
  • internet marketplace

  • enables people
  • connect data
  • nakfi science
  • researchers usually
  • marketplace mechanical


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