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Subject: Re: Chess Without Computers . . . Is that possible???

Author: Bob Durrett

Date: 13:44:22 01/02/03

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On January 02, 2003 at 16:14:09, Louis Fagliano wrote:

>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).

Well, I guess the extraterrestrial aliens would know about that.  Maybe that's
the way they would do it.

>
>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!

But how would they get to the playing site?  Airplanes would all be grounded.
Ships too! And trains!  Anyway, I guess there's no need to worry about all that.

: )

Bob D.



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