businessinsider.com/computer … ss-2013-11
Humans Are On The Verge Of Losing One Of Their Last Big Advantages Over Computers
It’s been 16 years since Deep Blue first beat Gary Kasparov at chess representing a major breakthrough in terms of the ability of computers to surpass to outperform humans at certain tasks.
Not impressed with the article or the links. Cowen is trying to sell books and online courses. Make a few sensational statements, cite a couple of authoritative sources that don’t really say what you posit, and you convince the uninformed that what you are saying is correct. This is more consultant-speak than real, helpful information. He extrapolates quite a bit from a few cases in his other books to make sweeping conclusions about the economy and politics. Is Cowen a chess player? Can’t find him anywhere. I would be more interested if Hsu or Berliner were coming to these conclusions.
The death of chess has been put forward since the 1920’s. Even in earlier eras there were complaints that players were too “booked up”. Players adapt to the ideas and technology of their time just as people have always done in many other areas. Just watch the next generation, who are extremely tech savvy, eat the computer’s lunch. They are not as impressed as their elders at the infallibility of the silicon monsters.
Tom,
I agree with you 80% of the time, even if you end up being wrong (making me wrong too), but I am going to have to take the other side of this one on at least one key point.
Tyler is primarily an economist today, and in inactive chess player, but he was an EXCELLENT chess player in his day.
In the 1970s he was close to 2300. He won the New Jersey championship at the age of 15, which at the time made him the youngest winner ever, a record which held for 30 years.
He won the US Amateur Team East, or was on the winning team. You can’t do those things and not be legit at chess, I’m sorry. His records have invariably been deleted post 1991, but he was for real.
His blog, marginalrevolution (which I’ve read for years, and can probably best be described as the ideal blog for someone moderate to left of center to read if they want a readable slightly right-of-center/libertarian viewpoint), has frequently talked about chess. He simply knows his stuff, and has thought about these things before. He may be wrong on some of the issues (just as he’s wrong on other big predictions from time to time), but he’s done the homework. I remember reading from before I started playing chess seriously about his experience with computers and trying to partner with them and the decreasing utility of his input (but all the way through his perspective had some value in terms of plan generation was i think the conclusion then).
Lastly, Tyler writes in an overly friendly style, but if you gave him truth serum he’d probably have stronger opinions. I’ve read other stuff and interviews on him. Apparently he keeps a chess sets throughout the places he spends time, but doesnt play because he thinks you have to be either all in or all out, and can’t really dabble. But apparently just the set nearby helps his thinking on other things.
For what it’s worth, there’s a pretty good piece from the Kenilworth chess club where they interviewed him.
One last challenge, because his writing is so influential outside of chess, it would be interesting if someone could get him back in the game.