PART 1 • Some thoughts on kasparov vs. Deep blue
2001: A Space Odyssey didn't shape our perceptions about computers
and AI single-handedly. It had a lot of help from the endless imitators that
followed, from the computer-as-menace no-brainer film Colossus: The
Forbin Project to the highly derivative David Gerrold novel When Harlie
was One. The grand tradition continues to this day, with luddite films such
as Ghost in the Machine appearing with alarming regularity (said film having the singular distinction of being the only movie I have ever walked
out on. And, speaking as a connoisseur of «B» movies, that really says
something about how totally tasteless and moronic it was). Even good
science fiction programs (such as Star Trek: The Next Generation) suffer
an occasional lapse and dredge up the hoary old cliche of the «maniac
out of control» computer. It's a hard image to avoid, even if you want to,
even if you try to.
Advertisers of computers even get lazy and fall back on this stupid stuff.
I recall one ad in particular that showed a professional woman sitting at
her PC, waving a floppy disk in front of the monitor, and telling the machine in a chiding tone, «Now I want this back...» I vowed on the spot to
never buy a computer from the company that dreamed up that idiotic ad.
Unfortunately, the net result of this «computer as menace» blitz is that the
message has been hammered into our heads over and over: «Computers are evil, computers are taking over the world, computers are bent on
human destruction». It lurks in the backs of all our minds, even the minds
of those of us who know better. No wonder thousands of people are still
today afraid to touch the dang things, even after they've spent thousands
to purchase one. Nobody really believes that these devices are sentient
beings bent on achieving our downfall, but the message from the films
that I mentioned nag at the backs of our minds.
Consider for a moment the fear that many first-time PC users display, just
from having to work with a desktop Pentium 133MHz computer with 16
MB RAM and a 1 gig hard drive. Now imagine what these folks would do
when confronted by a (*GASP*) mainframe?
WHITHER GOES IBM?
Deep Blue is one intimidating piece of hardware. It looks like two black refrigerators sitting side by side. The power cables for it make standard 220
cord look like angelhair pasta. Plus it requires a specialized environment:
Deep Blue craves air conditioning as badly as the main character in H.P.
Lovecraft's story «Cool Air». It calculates and evaluates chess moves so
quickly that any attempt to display all of its thoughts on a monitor simply results in a cursor blur. And it accesses a database of over a million
games so quickly that ChessBase looks like a snail by comparison.
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