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Subject: Re: Emulating Humans: An Approximation

Author: Bob Durrett

Date: 19:45:21 11/02/02

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On November 02, 2002 at 22:25:37, andrew tanner wrote:

>On November 02, 2002 at 00:06:08, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On November 01, 2002 at 22:52:14, Bob Durrett wrote:
>>
>>>On October 31, 2002 at 20:01:10, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On October 31, 2002 at 17:00:19, Bob Durrett wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Solving the general problem of emulating the chess play of "humanity" might be a
>>>>>prohibitively difficult task.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>This has been the "holy grail" of AI since its early days.  But the problem is,
>>>>in 25 words or less "we have no idea how a person does what he does when playing
>>>>chess (or anything else for that matter), which makes it _impossible_ to emulate
>>>>what we don't understand."
>>>
>>>Well, Bob H., emulating the chess play of a human is not exactly what the AI
>>>people want to do, is it.  They wish to make a carbon copy of a human in all
>>>it's gory details.
>>>
>>>Many orders of magnitude different, I would say.
>>>
>>>Bob D.
>>
>>They really want to emulate human thought processes related to chess,
>>at least for the computer chess/AI purists.  But until we know how the
>>human does what he does, emulation is futile, to paraphrase the borg.
>>
>
>Wouldn't it be possible to emulate human thought by having the program learn how
>to play chess from scratch, just as people do?

What would make it learn how to be human rather than something else entirely?

Bob D.



>
>I just happened upon this neat little program written in 1993 that seems to do
>just that. It's very weak, but it's a beginning.
>
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>http://satirist.org/learn-game/systems/sal.html
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>>>>>Perhaps a lesser accomplishment would be "good enough."  For example, one could
>>>>>select a dozen or more specific humans and then emulate them individually.  If
>>>>>the group of humans selected for emulation were chosen wisely, maybe they would
>>>>>represent [or "cover"] the entire population reasonably well.  The larger the
>>>>>group, the better they could represent the entire population of human
>>>>>chessplayers.
>>>>>
>>>>>Suppose someone with a 2800 rating were selected and called opponent #1.
>>>>>Then someone with a 2700 rating might be selected and called opponent #2.
>>>>>This could be continued until the rating was so low that there would be no need
>>>>>for more.
>>>>>
>>>>>#1 = 2800, #2 = 2700, #3 = 2600, #4 = 2500, etc.
>>>>>
>>>>>The next step might be to expand the list by having several individuals at each
>>>>>level but with different playing styles.
>>>>>
>>>>>There should be quite a few distinct emulated humans at the amateur levels,
>>>>>since that's where most of the people using the program would be.
>>>>>
>>>>>The intent maybe should be to emulate these people primarily in the middlegame
>>>>>and maybe endgame.  The opening repertoires of the individuals might also be
>>>>>copied but that might not be such a good idea unless the repertoires were large.
>>>>> A typical amateur might not have a complete opening repertoire at all.  In this
>>>>>case, one might be provided for him.
>>>>>
>>>>>To select a specific individual to be emulated, it would be necessary to have a
>>>>>fairly large collection of his/her games played at the desired performance
>>>>>level.  Such a collection might be hard to find for amateurs.
>>>>>
>>>>>How could the chess play of a specific individual be emulated without such a
>>>>>collection of games?  Maybe general well-known traits of chessplayers at the
>>>>>level being considered could be used to synthesize an emulation in that case.
>>>>>
>>>>>The emulations could then be used in a chess-playing program designed to serve
>>>>>as a training tool.  People would train against the emulated individuals at
>>>>>their level in preparation for future contests with humans.
>>>>>
>>>>>Clearly, this would be inferior to a full-scale emulation of all of the
>>>>>chessplayers in the World.  For example, if the number of individuals emulated
>>>>>were too small, one might "learn" the individual traits of the specific
>>>>>individual emulated.  After that, playing against that specific emulated
>>>>>individual might become boring.
>>>>>
>>>>>Care would be required to assure that the games would have some variability.
>>>>>This could be done in the opening, especially.  Maybe a random number generator
>>>>>would be used to randomly select the openings.  This is surely done by most or
>>>>>all programs using an opening book anyway.
>>>>>
>>>>>Bob D.



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