A Challenge To Checkers Players

[rdd1952]

Ok, all of you who think you are good at checkers. Programmers from the University of Alberta have developed a checkers playing program called Chinook that they say is 100% unbeatable. They say if an opponent plays perfectly that the game will end in a draw but that the computer can't be beat.

Computer program can't lose at checkers

 

[toppman]

is there a way i can play it?
i fancy my chances

 

[rdd1952]

I don't guess there is unless you go to the Univ. of Alberta. Would be nice to try though.

 

[toppman]

maybe its just a conspiracy.

i didnt want 2 tell any1 but iv found a way that u can turn a drop of water into a tonne of gold.

but dont tell anyone

 

[kewskills]

well as my hamster could beat me at checkers there's a good chance i would lose to this new super machine, however its a bold claim and can never be proved fully as there's always another game to be played and an outcome to see

 

[toppman]

well as my hamster could beat me at checkers there's a good chance i would lose to this new super machine, however its a bold claim and can never be proved fully as there's always another game to be played and an outcome to see

exactly, how can they claim that when theres infinite amount of games 2 play, it may win a vast majority or 99.999999% of games but theres always the next game or the game after that, and what if u played the computer against itself or another computer? will it always be a draw?

 

[demonmagus]

apparently it can calculate every possibility in a game, and the claim is that the computer against itself would be a draw

 

[toppman]

y dont these losers create something worth mentioning, like solving, poverty, global warming (if it even is because of humans, but thats another debate) or cures for aids and cancer.
but noooooooooooo instead there helping the world by creating things than can beat us and r more intelligent at friggin checkers
whats the world coming 2

 

[demonmagus]

well I think that would be harder than a checkers machine....

 

[toppman]

well they didnt create the machine overnight.
the time they spent working on it could of been spent doing something actually helpful 2 people

 

[demonmagus]

well the same could be said of anything...

 

[toppman]

.....such as.......

 

[demonmagus]

huge factories making designer shoes w/e why don't we all wear grey, same clothes, cut down on that and use all the saved energy to study cancer e.t.c.

 

[toppman]

because 2 be honest thats a stupid idea and ur being pedantic
im saying they didnt need 2 create that machine and its a waste of good minds.
they must have spent about 5 years on that, in that time they could have made progress in a cure 4 cancer or maybe even found a cure 4 a certain type, instead they decided 2 create something that is not going 2 be of use 2 any1, what good is a machine that can beat any1 at checkers, its would be pointless any1 playing it because they know the outcome before they play.
all im saying is that people like that should be forced 2 do something productive that can actually BENEFIT the human race

 

[Flumpus]

toppman, your argument is a little silly. First, these are obviously not medical researches, so if they spent the same amount of time researching a cure for cancer, they wouldn't have gotten very far. Second, you say they are good minds, but are they? Most likely they're just beginning their research careers, and this was a good first project. I'm just guessing, but I'm willing to bet this taught them a lot about problem solving, so maybe they can use this knowledge in future projects that might benefit the human race.