FEBRUARY 10th - Hope is a Good Thing



On this day in 1996, Gary Kasparov beat back the machines as he defeated the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue 4-2 in a chess match. Kasparov demonstrated that the human brain could still be more powerful than a computer. Sure the victory was short-lived. Deep Blue took the rematch the following year 3.5 to 2.5 (assuming the half comes in to play when a game is played to a draw). But if you really look at it, it’s pretty amazing that Gary was able to do as well as he did against Deep Blue. How many people does it take to build a supercomputer? I’d be willing to bet that it is more than one. So the match was really Gary versus a whole bunch of brilliant computer geeks, and for one shining moment Gary’s personal brilliance spit in the face of the inevitably of oncoming technology, shouting that he would not go silent into that good night. Look, I’ve read some Asimov, and I’ve seen all the Terminators. I know the robots are coming. But human beings still only use 10% of their brains, and while I don’t see a significant jump in that figure coming anytime soon, it’s still nice to know that even if the machines rise up, humans still hold a deep well in untapped potential. Of course, I may just be overreacting. Like I said, it was really Gary against a slew of super geeks. Just in case I’m not overreacting though, the potential of the human brain gives me some hope that we will never end up slaves to the robots. And if you’ve ever seen (or read) The Shawshank Redemption, you know that hope, the best of things, springs eternal.

This day has been Marked.

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