A Case for Sherlock Getting to Artificial Intelligence

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1886 fictional "consulting detective," Sherlock Holmes, was a great mind renowned for his highly advanced powers of observation and reasoning. He was often assisted by Dr Watson, who was unfailingly loyal, if noticeably less bright. At the end of each thrilling tale starring the duo, the anxious reader would always be delighted to hear Sherlock announce that he had solved the latest mind-bending riddle, inevitably characterizing the solution to his trusty helper as, "Elementary, my dear Watson!" Sherlock, no doubt, would love today's hottest trend – Artificial Intelligence -- as he would be thrilled by its ability to execute or to make plain that which appears impossible or difficult to achieve. For the past few years, for example, we've grown to love streaming music providers like Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, etc, which get smarter about our musical preferences the more we use/teach them. More recently, fun and friendly assistants from Amazon and Google have become the coolest gadgets to have, as they quickly search the web and serve up answers in response to simple voice commands.