Could A Chess Computer Take Over The World? (Article)

[rcmaddox]

Chess.com article speculates on chess program singularity ---->>
http://www.chess.com/article/view/could ... -the-world

Excerpt:

"Okay, let’s say it just played its best possible game of chess. The game is over. Now comes the moment when it’s about to turn itself off. This is a very serious event from its perspective because it can’t turn itself back on. […] It will wonder, 'Did I really play that game? What if somebody tricked me?'"

[mhull]

Could A Chess Computer Take Over The World?

Tron notwithstanding, no. Yes, I read the article, but really, no. But people will use the next generation of computers to "Take Over The World".

http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/systems- ... hemachine/

This is the kind of technology you need to control whether or not people can buy or sell, planet-wide. This computing platform could handle the massive amounts of data required for that kind of control.

[hgm]

As we know from history humans are already pretty good at taking over the world with malicious intent, making use of whatever technology is available to them. The idea that artificial intelligences would accidentally be better at this is very far fetched indeed. Just don't give them the launch codes for nuclear weapons.

It is a bit similar to super-natural monsters in horror films: pure fiction. Like you could beat millions of years of evolution creating a tiger, within the limits imposed by (bio)chemistry and physics.

[JoshPettus]

The people who ask this question tend not to be programers. Those that are tend to know that computers are actually pretty dumb.

[whereagles]

The above is indeed correct

[mjlef]

Chess.com article speculates on chess program singularity ---->>
http://www.chess.com/article/view/could ... -the-world

Excerpt:

"Okay, let’s say it just played its best possible game of chess. The game is over. Now comes the moment when it’s about to turn itself off. This is a very serious event from its perspective because it can’t turn itself back on. […] It will wonder, 'Did I really play that game? What if somebody tricked me?'"

Darn it! How do Larry and my secret world domination plans keep leaking?

[Albert Silver]

Chess.com article speculates on chess program singularity ---->>
http://www.chess.com/article/view/could ... -the-world

Excerpt:

"Okay, let’s say it just played its best possible game of chess. The game is over. Now comes the moment when it’s about to turn itself off. This is a very serious event from its perspective because it can’t turn itself back on. […] It will wonder, 'Did I really play that game? What if somebody tricked me?'"

Meh. Rensch, the VP of Chess.Com stated that all the Elo increase we see in computer chess in the last 10 years is only faster hardware, and the engines themselves have not really improved. It is in the video linked in that article.

Anyhow, if you want a different outlook than the fairly boring 'machines will take over', read Nexus by Ramez Naam.