I think therefore I am. Descartes motto has long been the key to humanity’s claim to cognitive fame. But what happens when machines start beating humans at their own game?
Take chess, for instance. In the 18th century, promoters took a chess playing box called “the automaton” on a tour of Europe and America, challenging audiences to match wits with the machine. The box did well, almost won a few times, but the jig was up after someone yelled “fire” during a match, and a person jumped out of the box. Then starting around 1948, scientists replaced the human being with a motherboard and started programming. In 1997, a computer named Deep Blue beat chess master Gary Kasparov.
Last week, there was a rematch. Playing to win, chess playing machines and the humans who love to beat them.
Guests:
Gaby Wood, author of “Edison’s Eve: a Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life”
Maurice Ashley, a chess grandmaster and a commentator for world championship
matches
Dr. Feng-Hsiung Hsu, author of “Behind Deep Blue:Building the Computer
That Defeated the World Chess Champion”