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Subject: Re: What is the true value of a human GM,if they are no match to comps.(soon

Author: Mogens Larsen

Date: 12:09:14 06/15/01

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On June 15, 2001 at 14:17:19, James Robertson wrote:

>This misses the point. Competition against machines in the physical realm is fun
>because there are no androids that destroy us in, say, a marathon or basketball
>game. Cars and buses are just so different that we aren't really competing
>against them.

My attempted humorous response (and subsequent failure) was aimed at the "what
is the great value of our human GM's...." remark. Mainly because I understood it
as "Why do something in an less effective manner". The reply from Stuart showed
that I wasn't too far off the mark IMO. The analogy could probably be a few
million times better.

>As far as I know though, there are few, if any mind games humans still play
>seriously that computers have mastered. Sure, people have spelling bees, but
>then there are not world spelling championships that anyone cares about. You
>will notice there is not a terrible amount of interest in checkers, and someday
>I believe chess will follow that fate.

That could very well be correct.

>For this reason I can't understand why anybody would WANT computers to be better
>than humans. That just speeds up the trivialization of chess. Look what happened
>in the public's eye when DB beat Kasparov.... I think that that match really
>lowered the mystique of chess in people's eyes.

Well, that's a tricky one. For a while I've been of the opinion that computer
domination should be proven as soon as possible to get rid of computer programs
in human events. Even though I'm sure that software developers will try to drag
it out for as long as possible. But you may be right about your prediction on
the decline of interest. I'm not as certain, because the appeal of human-human
combat will still be there. Checkers have never been as popular as chess AFAIK.
Not that it might have any importance on future interest by default.

Regards,
Mogens



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