Is Walter Roberson a real person, or is he some kind of Matlab AI robot?

Just curious!

[Adam Danz]

+1 for asking what we all wonder :D

[Jim Riggs]

I have been participating in this forum for about 18 months now, and I am realy impressed with all of you top contributors. You guys are fantastic!

Very knowlegeabe and you always keep it classy!

Just my way of saying thanks, I appreciate what you do for the Matlab answers forum.

[KALYAN ACHARJYA]

May be he is a AI Robot, but his continous selfless help cetegories him as a great human being. Machine have limited programmed knowledge, but WR..oh god...

Truly a real great man with millions of helping hands.

Gratitude

[Rik]

The new question is this:

In October 2016 he had 50k rep. Back then the average rate was a point per hour. Now he is nearing the 100k mark. Will he get there before October? And if he keeps this up, will he be progressively faster?

[madhan ravi]

It’s a piece of cake for the GOAT xD, with the current pace 2-4 weeks from now.

[Adam Danz]

Let's make predicitions when Walter Roberson will hit the 100k mark

The winner will be recognized as the most precise predictor and will (probably not) be awarded the "100k point predictor" badge in their profile.

Make your prediction of the date and time (UTC) that WR will cross the 100k reputation point mark here in this Google Form.

https://forms.gle/ACB4tNUN6bFae7dG7

Error will be weighted exponentially so that earlier votes result in reduced error relative to later votes. Specifically, the absolute value of the error in days (floating point) will be multiplied by e^(-d) where d is the number of days between the timestamp of your guess and the time stamp of WR's 100,000th point.

I'll share results afterward.

[Walter Roberson]

Heh. Any of you could vote for "today" and then go and vote for a bunch of my postings ;-)

[Fangjun Jiang]

Can't access Google Form from work. I vote for 8/14/2020.

[Rik]

So now the question is whether we will see a bump in the rep gain because of someone trying to pull the date forward. XD

[Adam Danz]

Ha! I wouldn't doubt there are people who want to be the 100,000th point-giver. Unfortunately I already placed my bet using a simple linear regression and that factor was not in my model.

[Adam Danz]

@Fangjun Jiang nailed it!

[Fangjun Jiang]

Congratulations to Walter! An impossible feast!

[Walter Roberson]

About 7:06 am central by the way.

[Adam Danz]

Fangjun only specified the date so the default time would be midnight making his guess only 12 hours off (UCT time). I was the only other one to make a guess and I based it on simple linear regression where the slope was estimated by your recent 7-day and 30-day numbers which resulted in today (1 day later) at 1:39pm UTC (4:39pm Central), .

[Fangjun Jiang]

@Adam Danz, It shows you that over-thinking is not a good thing.:)

[Image Analyst]

Sounds reasonable Adam. Perhaps you could join the covid-19 modeling groups, thereby raising their mean IQ substantially and improving forecasts.

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_(computer)

Walter <-> Watson Levenshtein distance = 4.

Roberson <-> Robot Levenshtein distance = 4.

nnz(mod(+'Walter',4)) = 4

sum('Roberson') = 842 (note 8/2 = 4)

numel('Roberson') = 8 = 4+4

MATLAB Central user number: 434782 (note 7-3 = 4 and 8/2 = 4)

Active since 2011 (note 2019-2011 = 8 = 4+4)

14 badges ... and:

Coincidence?

[Jim Riggs]

This is great!

I think you are definitely on to something.

[EDIT] I have decided to accept this answer based on creativity!

[Chen Lin]

I have decided to vote this answer based on creativity!

[Walter Roberson]

Well, I do belong to the Watson clan...

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

Yes, Walter is a real person. In fact at the Annual Meetings in June of this year, he received a highly prestigious MATLABBY Award. There was also another ceremony to celebrate his "Star" in the "Mathworks Walk of Fame". I'm including photos from the event below.

By the way, I'm also attaching the Photoshop files in case you'd like to make your own.

[Walter Roberson]

Unfortunately I could not attend the ceremony as I could not find an extension cord that was long enough. ?

[KALYAN ACHARJYA]

Great!

[Luna]

The award statue wears a dress also :)

[Adam Danz]

@Luna, the trophy is modeled after an Emmy Award.

[Sachin Motwani]

Besides 'upvoting', we must have an option of 'claps' here.

Want to applaud you for this.

[Image Analyst]

And there is a new award for people who attain 100,000 reputation points: The Roberson Cup.

Answer 3

[Adam Danz]

There are small windows of silence from WR that follow a circadian cycle suggesting periods of sleep which would be evidence that WR is human. But this could easily be built in to the AI robot as well.

WR, are you up for a Turing test?

[Walter Roberson]

“Sir?” came a familiar voice Luke hadn’t heard in a while.

“What?” Luke was startled out of his examination.

“If you’ll not be needing me,” Threepio declared, “I think I’ll shut down for a bit. It will help the armature nerves to knit, and I’m due for some internal self-cleansing anyhow.”

[Rik]

I'm voting for a daily reboot instead of a sleep cycle as well ;)

Answer 4

[Image Analyst]

Of course it helps that he's on MATLAB's advisory board and gets some special things like the "Mind Reading Toolbox" and the "Crystal Ball Toolbox" that even we (other MVPs) don't have access to.

Answer 5

[M.S. Khan]

Mathworks community is outstanding plateform of science and all are performing like a team but some are Leaders like Mr. Walter Roberson. He has dedicated his most of the time to serve and help the research of the whole world.

Winning teams always have talented leaders or captans. All community members of Mathworks are just like stars and have equal contributions in promoting knwoledge and humanity all around the Globe.

Salute to all of them.

Answer 6

[Fangjun Jiang]

Ha Ha Ha, a good question! I would say a robot, but I bet Walter Roberson would say otherwise.

Answer 7

[James Tursa]

Blade Runner 2019 ...

Answer 8

[Bjorn Gustavsson]

Well, I've seen signs that would be surprising in an AI robot - so my guess is actual human.