Skynet goes online
Ten years ago today, the computer Deep Blue beat Kasparov. It was the first time a computer had taken a full match from a human grand master.
(As an aside, The first Kasparov / computer match from the previous year was the first time I ever settled a bet by looking something up on the Internet. My buddy Cool didn’t believe Kasparov had won, and a Yahoo search proved me right.)
I “play” chess only in the sense that I know how the pieces move. Knowing the alphabet doesn’t mean you know how to read. But it seems to me that conceptually, there’s no reason to expect a human to play better than a computer. At any stage of the game, there are a finite number of possible outcomes, and that number gets smaller with every move. That’s the kind of thing computers do well. No one is stunned when computers factor huge numbers faster and more accurately than humans. Why should we be surprised when computers figure out better chess moves?
I guess if someone built a computer that could beat a top-notch Yu Gi Oh player, I’d be more impressed.
May 11th, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | |
