CAPTCHA!

Isn't this odd? It's one of those things that make you go... hmmm.

Of course we know what these are, and why they are used. But still, when you look at a captcha, doesn't it affect you on some sort of primal level?

Captchas have to be just about the most unnatural things I have ever seen. Is it possible they are here to serve a purpose other than the obvious?

What is it that separates man from machine?



How is it that no matter what I do to this text, it is still clearly and easily legible to me, yet impossible to read by any conceivable machine? Isn't that the trillion dollar question?


If one could make a computer as powerful as the human brain, how much would such a thing be worth? More importantly, how would someone go about building such a computer? Would they contract it out to a thousand man research team and give them 20 years to come up with an idea? Why bother going through that much trouble. It seems to be happening on its own. Mark my words, one day there will be a computer than can read any type of distorted text we can throw at it. And when that day comes, what won't that computer be able to do? Where would that leave us?