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Irony just isn't what it used to be...


My FIRST Stash--hey, isn't it ironic?  From today's NYT Magazine, an article of Hope:

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The Irony-O-Matic

By HOPE REEVES

Spotter, a French technology company, claims to have devised software that can do what humans have failed at for millenniums: detect irony. For instance, says Richard May, the company’s U.K. sales director, “If someone has a delayed flight, they will tweet: ‘Thanks Air France for getting us into London two hours late.’ ” He suggests the software would likely interpret that as sarcastic. Technology these days is amazing. Seriously.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/11/10/magazine/10-one-page-magazine.html?ref=magazine&_r=0

Stashed in: Awesome, Turing, comedy, fun, Irony, Sarcasm

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So the software can detect both irony and sarcasm?

Evidently that's the representation, and what a representation!

Makes one wonder that something like this could certainly win the Turing Award, but would it pass the Turing Test?

It's clear that most humans can understand sarcasm, but can't spot irony!  The machine logic is simply too good at knowing human rhetoric to be human...

Hah, now that's ironic!

I'm guessing that most humans can't define irony, which is why they cannot spot it.

Take, for example, Alanis Morissette:

She thinks "rain on your wedding day" and "a traffic jam when you're already late" are ironic.

I don't think irony can be a Turing test since understanding irony is not essential to being human.

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