PART 1 • Some thoughts on kasparov vs. Deep blue
But help is lurking somewhere just over the horizon. Instructional software
is getting better and better. I had my first look at Chess Mentor last week
and I was really impressed. It's not every piece of software that can throw
you a position, ask you what you'd play, and then explain why dang near
any move you made is right or wrong. True, the analysis is pre-written, but
I can see a day coming, possibly in my lifetime, when the computer will
actually generate the analysis and dialog right on the spot. It will be able
to analyze our weaknesses and provide us with corrective measures,
improving our play.
Something a bit like this exists now for beginning to low-intermediate
players. The program Power Chess will allow you to play a game against
it and then provide you with spoken analysis of your play immediately
following the game. The analysis is a bit superficial for stronger players
but it's still a slick little program and worth the 18 bucks just to see the
spoken analysis in action.
Programmers have taken their first baby steps towards giving us expert
system chess tools for our PCs, but they've taken a big jump forward this
past week toward proving that an expert program can be a match for the
acknowledged best in a specialized field of endeavor. When a computer
can teach a human something beneficial, the event becomes a cause
for celebration, not a reason to regard the machine in the same light as
Arthur C. Clarke's fictional creation.
No, Kasparov losing to Deep Blue isn't the end of the world. To crib from
Aldous Huxley, I believe it's the start of a brave new world. If it's a world
that will help us to become better at what we do, whether it's playing
chess or performing chemical research or hunting for Apatosaurus
remains, I for one am ready to embrace that world wholeheartedly.
“Confronting the Beast”
is copyrighted 1997, Steven A. Lopez.
All rights reserved.
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