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Checkers Solved, Unbeatable Database Created
tgeller writes "My story on the Nature site announced that a team of computer scientists at the University of Alberta has solved checkers. From the game's 500 billion billion positions (5 * 10^20), 'Chinook' has determined which 100,000 billion (10^14) are needed for their proof, and run through all relevant decision trees. They've set up a site where you can see the proof, traverse the logic, and play their unbeatable automaton. '[Jonathan] Schaeffer notes that his research has implications beyond the checkers board. The same algorithms his team writes to solve games could be helpful in searching other databases, such as vast lists of biological information because, as he says, "At the core, they both reduce to the same fundamental problem: large, compressed data sets that have to be accessed quickly."'"
Wow. Reminds me of how awesome I thought I was when I was 7 years old and I solved Tic Tac Toe.
Holy crap. .
If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
Now, far be it from me to criticize the research of a group that can manage to convince someone to give them a grant to play checkers with a computer all day, but their "proof" on that site is a little suspect.
When I click on the proof, all I get is a Java error saying "Unable to connect to server". While the inability to connect to the Checkers server may make it "Unbeatable" in a Wargames-esque "the only way to win is not to play" kind of way, it's kind of a cop-out.
So all we have to do to crash the eventual skynet is move in a direction that isn't diagonal? This is going to be easy.
<clack....clack....clack>
"That's a inside giraffe, king me."
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
no, to crash it, you tell it to play against itself. then it realizes that in the game of thermonuclear warfare, there is no winner.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
the only winning move is not to play...
http://games.cs.ualberta.ca/~chinook/cgi-bin/statu s.cgi
GAME 17:
Opponent: Cmdr Taco (cmdrtaco@slashdot.org)
Chinook color: White
Level: Novice
Move number: 3
Game analysis: Chinook has a small advantage.
you didn't answer the question. How many gazillion?
-1 not first post
So what happens if one automaton plays another? Does the universe implode in some kind of horrible checkers armageddon?
The day an automaton is "unbeatable" is the day it's 500ft tall and shoots nuclear rockets from its fingertips. I think I know a relatively easy way to beat this checkers program.
Screw Go. I'll be impressed when they solve Mario Party....
I think it depends; how many Brazilians are in a gazillion?
42
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Good Lord, the Go nuts have invaded Checkers posts too.
I've always wondered what God is... Now I know, God is 'cussions'. Now if only I knew what a 'cussion' is. Is it like a cushion?
We always knew Comcast was corrupt, here's the proof: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1909890&cid=34545432
Well...if its any consolation, I am reasonably certain we will have the ability to think with our genitals quite a long time before computers ever master that one, if they even can. Logic be damned!
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
Schrodinger's chess is when you set up a chess board in a box with a cat. You then shake the box, and declare that you beat the cat at chess.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Cue the STL police and their iterator nightsticks.
Good idea. Perhaps Checkers can be revitalized by randomizing which piece goes on which starting space too...
In 1986, I tried a variant by putting all the black pieces on black squares and all the white pieces on white squares.
It's now 2007 and we still haven't completed the first game...
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Correction to the correction: MAY have beat the cat with chess.