We do not charge admission. We, like the San Francisco Book Festival, also have very little money for author honorariums and expenses and are very reliant upon the generosity of authors and publishers. While the festival takes place in the south, we are not exclusively Southern. Keep up the good work. To suggest that the state of the art in computer technology has progressed to the point where it can accurately predict human preferences and choices is ludicrous.
Computers can deal with data, trends and create mathematical models.
They cannot determine whether a relationship between data is valid or a model is accurate. This requires human interaction and judgement. To paraphrase the old adage, an infinite number of computers randomly generating text for an infinite amount of time will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare . . Well, actually the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body, and as such it is the more wholistic side of the brain that notices patterns, is intuitive, visual, subjective, timeless, musical. The left side of the brain is the hemisphere that is more linear, rational, etc.