Author: Louis Fagliano
Date: 13:14:09 01/02/03
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On January 02, 2003 at 15:20:36, Bob Durrett wrote: > >Here is a sobering thought: > >In less than the span of a human lifetime [!!!!], humanity has gone from a life >without any computers to what we have today. Where I live, computers are >everywhere. > >If extraterrestrial aliens were to come here and immediately take all our >computers, it would be worse than if all the nuclear bombs exploded all at once. > Like a thousand volcanoes. Governments would collapse and there would be chaos >in all of the "developed" nations. > >And yet, chess programmers take this stuff in stride as if it were always this >way. > >Just an old guy's perspective. : ) > >Bob D. Guess what. It doesn't take extraterrestrial aliens to come here and immediately take all our computers. There's something else that can be administered by evil humans to do exactly that and is technologically very possible. Ever hear of the electromagnetic pulse (EMP)? You just denotate a nuclear weapon in space, say 1500 miles above the surface of the earth and goodbye to anything with a silcon chip in it (to say nothing of the power surges in power lines and substations that will be knocked out of commision). Ground bursts do horrific damage to buildings and people but the EMP of such a detonation doesn't get very far due to the curvature of the earth. Detonate it in space and there will be no damage at all to buildings and people, just their computers will be gone, permanently inoperable even after the restoration of electricity. It won't take long before the developemnt of Fritz 9 and Chess Tiger 16 will be the last things on people's minds. Ah, but in the midst of the collapse and chaos in all of the developed (and undeveloped for that matter, too) nations of the world, human GM's will once again be the strongest chess players in the world!
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