Author: Graham Laight
Date: 02:06:51 08/30/01
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On August 29, 2001 at 13:58:11, Derrick Daniels wrote: > >With all the talent and intelligence here, shouldn't we be devoting our time to >solving the problems of HUMANITY? I don't know about anyonelse but everytime i >come here I feel like I am wasting precious time, although I enjoy it >considerably. You're getting away with murder here! "Problems of humanity" is far too general to get a handle on. You have to be specific to be terrific! Pick a particular problem, and I'm sure we'll be happy to discuss it in the thinkers' forum. For some of us, the inability to select a GM level chess move is a problem. I actually find both chess and computer chess to be an extremely useful insight into intelligence. Thanks to prof Elo, we have a mathematical model of how increasing intelligence in a particular field works. Computers, which can play hundreds of times more games than humans, have shown us that this model is not 100% accurate (see the background articles on the SSDF website). In no other endeavor has intelligence been modelled so well. We now know how much knowledge (in terms of "remembered patterns") is required to be a true genius. We have done enormous amounts of research to discover the difference between GM thinking and novice thinking. This knowledge was recently cemented by studying chess players from novice to GM while they played with magnetic resonance brain scanners - so now we know with 100% certainty. Novices calculate, GMs remember. We know a great deal about computer game playing. Games like Warri, which have a small number of choices per go, are easily dominated by computers, wheras games which have a large number of choices per go (e.g. Go) can be regarded as "computer unfriendly". This knowledge (of how different scenarios can be programmed) might lead to the production of better computer systems for various "real world" requirements. For me, the most surprising thing about computer chess is the time it has taken to reach GM level. We now know that the early practicioners were far too optimistic in their estimates of how long it would take to reach GM level. But despite this, I still believe that by 2025, there will be no aspect of human intellect which cannot be demonstrably surpassed by computers. It's just that we now know that big advances will be needed in software as well as hardware. Enriching one's personal knowledge base is always useful. New situations will always continue to arise - and in some of these new situations, the knowledge we have gained in the field of chess/chess computing will be extremely useful. -g
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