Watson Won on Jeopardy-- So What?

I suppose there can be come back-slapping among the IBMers that they built a computer that can access a lot of data, but I, for one, was not terribly impressed.

First off, if you watched the answers that the Watson machine came up with (the top three were displayed on the screen for every question), some of them were almost laughable.

Second, what the match really proved is that computers have faster reaction times than do humans. Did anyone seriously doubt that beforehand? As I understand the game, a contestant has to evaluate the question and then, after Trebek finishes, push the button first. If the contestant pushes too early, they are locked out for about a quarter of a second or so. A computer is obviously going to be faster there.

It was still an achievement for IBM, but let's not run around screaming that SkyNet is coming.