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Subject: Re: What kind of knowledge is not in chessprograms?

Author: karen Dall Lynn

Date: 22:12:54 01/15/02

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On January 15, 2002 at 13:35:38, Joshua Lee wrote:


This is quite a complex - but interesting - question. I am not a programmer and
I have no idea about what is going on within GUI's and engines; however, from a
cognitive science point of view, I would say that no chess program can get close
of having *playing insight*. An insight is a sudden understanding, the popping
up - in a person's mind - of a sharp vision about a problem, that may come out
from zero premisses or impose itself suddenly in the form of an output,
appearantly without a previous input. No chess program can do that and I believe
that developing hardware and software that could replicate insight - if possibly
any - is something that really would take a lot of money, time, and human
resources; also, it would require a next-step technology because for the best of
my knowledge the extant highest techologies simply cannot do that. We have a
very compelling and convincing simulation of a vivid expert in chess; but no
real conceptual insight is burning from within.

What happens is that when a GM lose for a program, he/she loses graciously and
his/her thinking ways - no matter being a loser's ways - are full of insight.
Search based chess programs are acknowledged as smart players but dumb cognitive
agents. Following the lines of Hiarchs maybe, or more recent engines under the
same inspiration, parts of chess knowledge may be built in as cutways to the
right playing against massive extensive searching, which is prunned in the name
of an ellegant decrease of speed with improvement of results. However, all of
this is still purely sinthatic. No semantical move, no insight is really going
on inside those tiny brains, no matter how many times we astonishingly lose for
them.

If you want to discuss more deeply this issue, search over the Internet - say -
for "The Chinese Room Argument". Cyborg intelligence in chess is a variation of
the question this argument addresses.

Regards,

Karen

>What kind of knowledge is not in chessprograms?
>Are there techniques that are too costly but are supposed to be better than
>current methods?



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