[..]listening to data geeks salivating over prospects of ruling the world by 2015 using large scale automated analysis of Web content, I’ve realized that it is up to us bad punners, over-clever reference droppers and metaphor-mixers to prevent the data geeks from accidentally creating Skynet. Or at least delay the takeover. Giving up a few ounces of SEO juice and some traffic is a small price to pay. Call it the Skynet Resistance Tax.

Beating lowly humans on Jeopardy was just the beginning. IBM's famed Watson supercomputer will soon be available as a commercialized analytics tool for data-heavy industries like healthcare, telecom and financial services.

IBM describes the work in an intriguing paper (pdf) that compares various animal simulations done by its cognitive computing research group in Almaden, Calif. The group has managed to completely simulate the brain of a mouse (512 processors), rat (2,048) and cat (24,576). To rival the cortex inside your head, IBM predicts it will need to hook up 880,000 processors, which it hopes to achieve by 2019.

Check this video out -- One Mainframe To Rule Them All (1of5)

"Ultimately the goal here is not denying treatment but getting people to the right care," Beer said, adding that Watson was not designed to replace humans.

So far as we know, Skynet remains a fictional creation. And yet, if IBM (NYS: IBM) has its way, a machine capable of thinking as a human might isn't far off. A prototype chip created in Big Blue's labs possesses the ability to make decisions from synthesizing massive amounts of data.