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Subject: Re: Upon scientific truth - the nature of information

Author: Ralf Elvsén

Date: 16:39:10 07/15/00

Go up one level in this thread


On July 15, 2000 at 19:16:09, Dann Corbit wrote:

>On July 15, 2000 at 17:51:55, blass uri wrote:
>
>>On July 15, 2000 at 17:32:05, Dann Corbit wrote:
>>
>>>On July 15, 2000 at 17:20:18, blass uri wrote:
>>>
>>>>On July 15, 2000 at 16:59:32, Mogens Larsen wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On July 15, 2000 at 16:45:19, ShaktiFire wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>Chris Carson has documented dozens of games at standard time control
>>>>>>of computer play vs. GMs.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I won't knit pick...this or that program, this or that hardware.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>But in the last 2 years, dozens of games have been played.  Computers
>>>>>>vs. GMs at standard time control.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Ratings can be calculated with these games.  The more games played,
>>>>>>the less uncertainty in the rating.  The rating indicated, based
>>>>>>on these dozens of games is over 2500.
>>>>>
>>>>>You can't include games from all types of programs on all types of hardware
>>>>>under different game conditions (tournament, exhibition or something else) and
>>>>>reach a sound conclusion. Given the number of programs and hardware
>>>>>configurations, you can't say that computer programs as a single entity are of
>>>>>GM strength. You need an identical setup, software and hardware, and then
>>>>>conduct enough games to reduce the uncertainty sufficiently to ensure a
>>>>>confident rating above 2500. The scientific method is testing using a stable and
>>>>>unchanged setup.
>>>>
>>>>If you have many programs that have performance of more than 2500 you can be
>>>>sure that the best of them has more than 2500 rating.
>>>>
>>>>You can do it without identicl setup,software and hardware.
>>>>
>>>>You will never get identical setup of software and hardware in the near future
>>>>so by your logic you cannot claim that programs are GM level in the near future.
>>>>
>>>>I disagree.
>>>
>>>I disagree with your disagreement.  For each program, they have strengths and
>>>weaknesses.  All programs have bugs in them too.  To clump them all together is
>>>unsound not only mathematically, but for the obvious reason that you don't have
>>>enough programs from one program to find out how to attack it.
>>>
>>>Each program must be decided upon its own merits.  Or if we say that "Computer
>>>programs are GM strengh" then TSCP is a GM.  Absurd?  Of course.  And why not --
>>>because we have a lot of games by this program to know better.  But if we make a
>>>few changes to TSCP and make a multithreaded version and put it on a 32 CPU
>>>alpha it might be a GM.  Was the original TSCP on a PII 300 MHz machine now a
>>>GM?  Clearly not.   Lumping them together is an act of desparation.  Either that
>>>or a lack of clear thinking.
>>>
>>>A program on a given hardware setup may or may not be a GM.  You cannot lump
>>>them all together -- it's simply ridiculous.
>>
>>I can say that at least one of them is a GM.
>>
>>Imagine that you have 100 different coins and you want to know if they are fair
>>(probability 1/2 for each side).
>>
>>Suppose you throw all of them one time and you get 100 heads(all fall on the
>>same side).
>>
>>I can reject the conjecture that all of them fair with almost 100% confidence
>>but if I take only one of them I have not enough data to reject the conjecture
>>that it is fair.
>>
>>I know that at least one of them is unfair but I do not know which one.
>>
>>The same may be for programs.
>
>Did you know that if I flip a perfectly fair coin 100 times, the probability of
>100 tails in a row is exactly the same as the other 2^101 -1 possible outcomes?

Why are there 2^101 outcomes in total? Just curious.

>In fact, every possible sequence of those 2^101 -1 is equally probable.  This is
>because the occurance of a head does not alter the probability that the next
>toss will be a head.  It's still 50-50.  head-tail repeated 50 times would be
>just as astonishing.
>
>The bigger your collection of experimental points, the GREATER your chances of
>finding an outlier are.  Given enough trials, every absurd observation will be
>seen.

But if Uri throws these 100 coins once with the above result, I would
think he had a point. Or maybe you two are discussing something else...

>
>Your conclusion does not follow.





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