THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
When a chess-playing super computer says ``Wait a second,'' it is talking about the time it takes to evaluate more than 100 million possible positions. Allowed 180 seconds per move in tournament play, the computer can see countless turns into the future, simply by trial and error. Would this work? No. How about this? No.
A human chess player's only chance to defeat a computer is to think smart - to evaluate not hundreds of millions of possible positions but the ones that instinct and experience say are the most promising. The human has to be human.
Earlier this month, for the first time, a computer defeated a world chess champion in a single game under tournament conditions. IBM's Big Blue, six years in the making, won the opening game in a six-game match against world champion Gary Kasparov.
The score was Machine 1, Human 0. Humans were shocked; machines, indifferent.
Kasparov thought back to win three games and tie two. The final score, with one-half point awarded for ties, was Human 4, Machine 2.
The best human beat the best machine. Spring is near. Life is good.
Someday, inevitably, a computer will defeat a world chess champion in a six-game match. Eventually a computer will win every chess game against the best humans.
A vain bunch, humans will rationalize, ``Ahhh, but we designed and built the champion computer.''
Someday a computer will design and build a computer that will defeat the champion computer that humans designed and built.
Humans will boast, ``Ahhh, but we designed and built the computer that designed and built the champ.''
Still, life will be more complex, perhaps a little less satisfying. Our fall-back claim will be, ``Yeah, but humans invented chess.'' By then, however, computers may be playing a new game, one beyond human comprehension.
Think of these as the good old days, back when a human could defeat the smartest machine. Enjoy these good old days while they last and prepare to tell future generations about them. ``There was this smart fellow, Gary Kasparov, see, and he. . . . ''
They might not believe us. by CNB