Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 05:37:20 05/30/99
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On May 30, 1999 at 05:47:06, Peter McKenzie wrote: >On May 29, 1999 at 21:43:18, Robert Hyatt wrote: > ><snip> >> >>I would only point out two things: >> >>(1) we have seen cpu speeds double every 2 years or so for a while. There >>has been _no_ quantum leaps in speed in 40+ years of computing. > >Well, there was a pretty big leap going from Babages mechanical switches to >Valves, but that wasn't in the last 40 years. What about the jump from valves >to transisters (I really don't know the answer to that one)? But yes I >definitely agree with you, it doesn't seem likely that we'll see a quantum leap >in the next 2-3 years. > >Although funny you should use the word 'quantum', I hear there is some progress >in quantum computing. If anything is going to give us a quantum leap, that'll >be it! > >> >>(2) forward-pruning (or selective search as an alternative name) has been the >>holy grail of computer chess and AI since Shannon's famous paper. It has never >>been very effective, even after 30 years of computer chess programming (actually >>this goes back more like 45 years or so). Which means it is unlikely to become >>suddenly 'solved' in a couple of years. > >Bob, you seem to be overlooking null move here. Null move pruning is by >definition a form of forward-pruning, and is very effective. > >The fact that it took so long to discover gives me hope that there might be >other even better techniques waiting to be discovered. > >> >>Anything can happen, yes. But I am much more concerned about getting hit by >>a meteor, because that is more probable. :) You do know that 'null-move' dates back to the 1970's? IE perhaps used a bit differently (we first used Beal's null-move idea in the early 80'w...) but still 'there'. And while it is a form of forward pruning, it is not anywhere near what we would call selective searching. IE in the 1976 ACM computer chess event, "blitz" finished in a 3-way tie for 2nd place, searching a _total_ of 100 nodes in 3 minutes or so. Highly selectively, of course, never searching more than 7 moves from any position in the tree, generally far less...
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