How Do You Teach a Computer Common Sense?

Common sense is a funny thing. It's here that we as people co-existing within a given society reach unsaid agreements on basic features and interpretations of the world, whether "we" like it or not. It's a very conservative notion for one, arguably acting as a drag force on societal evolution, and one that marginalizes by definition. But it's also in a sense a living history of the present, the contested Wikipedia entry that is a collection of people trying to understand itself through often ugl...