This time this blog will be consisting of two subparts that were requested by both Dr. Pless and Dr. Kaisler. Dr. Pless requested examples of the data we will or could use for the research needs, while Dr. Kaisler asked us to show few examples of what a computer cannot do. Hence, the name of the title.
The data:
I might have spoiled a little bit about this part in my previous blog where I mentioned that I, together with my project mate Farida, will be focusing on using the data provided by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). There are a few reasons for using this specific source of data. The first one is that it is an open data source for the petroleum industry that can be used for our project. In this link, one can find the needed information for their research in the specific field. It comes in various formats including the standardized CSV. Within the provided data, the NPD also provides extra useful information about the geographical positions of drilled wells. As shown in the screenshot on the right, there is a map showing activities related to the petroleum industry. In this link, one can see more detailed data in a written form.
Another reason why this data will be helpful for us is that the company we worked on uses a similar structure in their databases, which eventually will help us to easily integrate the systems in case of the successful end of the project.
Yet another positive side of using this data is avoidance of the need for the NDA and a less restricted working environment.
The flaws of the computers:
I think people keep having contradictive opinions on what computers are capable of. While some would argue they are better than humans, others would say they are not even close. And in all honesty, I think that computers are capable of both. Computers can do math very quickly without any mistakes (often). However, what they can't do is "understand". When they solve a problem, they don't know why they do it. It is just a direct algorithm to solve. They don't understand human things like feelings either. Or sarcasm. And I do not doubt that one day they will be able to do it and in my opinion, it will require a tremendous amount of data with similar examples but it will happen. Technological advancements never stop improving. This may cause some disagreements about how safe it is for a computer to be humanlike but until then we will not be able to tell certainly.