[nailer]

Does this article imply there are circumstances where a spreadsheet is a cat? What a poor example of technical writing.

[andysinclair]

He’s saying that the spreadsheet represents the “picture” of the cat in terms of pixels and RGB values etc.

The algorithm/workers are not really “looking” at a picture of a cat, they are analysing and looking for patterns in the data that defines the picture of the cat.

[nailer]

Yes I know. The spreadsheet analogy does not work.

[teacpde]

Not the author, but to the author's defense, it is meant to be non-technical. And the first paragraph reads interesting to me.

[nailer]

Most non technical people would think there are zero circumstances where a spreadsheet could be a cat.

[adrianmonk]

It's obvious from context that it's the content of the media. To me at least.

If I play you a song on Spotify and say, "Is this a saxophone?", you wouldn't say, "No, it's a iPhone running Spotify."

If a policeman holds up a photograph of a person and says, "Is this the person who attacked you?", the victim doesn't say, "No, it's an 8 by 10 glossy print."

[nailer]

Yes but you had to think about it, as did I, and there was a moment where you went "hangon, did this person imply a spreadsheet could ever be a cat?" and thought you were 95% sure they did this very bizarre thing, it was distracting.

[cshimmin]

mais ceci n'est pas une pipe!

[ricardobeat]

That's part of the explanation. It might not make sense at first, but you'll figure something out to avoid being slapped.