Slashdot Mirror
NASA Holding Space Vs. Earth Chess Game
A few days ago, NASA and the US Chess Federation teamed up to host a space vs. Earth chess game. Astronaut Greg Chamitoff is playing one side, while the other side's moves will be determined by a public vote. Four potential moves will be selected each weekday by a chess club comprised of students from kindergarten through third grade. Once the selections are made, visitors to the USCF's site can vote for the move they like best. The USCF is maintaining a blog to update the moves and board position, and to provide commentary.
Earth wins, gloats, then...the next thing you know an asteroid mysteriously changes orbit and heads toward Florida.
Space wins.
this might have worked, but now that it's on the slashdot front page we're going to see millions of botnet votes for the worst moves
Is NASA trying to one-up "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?", who just had an astronaut on?
Because it's a public vote, and the majority of the population, even the smaller subset interested in this, can't see more than one move ahead. And if the vote somehow comes up with a long-term strategy, it won't be able to follow through. While the one person up there can think as far ahead as he wants.
Do the kids determine the moves on their own or can they use help from a chess computer? If they can use a chess computer then space has no chance.
By the way the Slashdot poll asks if you'd like to own the space shuttle. That makes me wonder if NASA will sell it when they retire it. I'd think there would be some buyers. A commercial operation might be able to operate it much cheaper than NASA could.
OH, think of the children!
But seriously - more rational deduction in early education including logic games and reasoning will help fight the absurd and assinie War on Intellectualism.
I play chess and Go with my daughter each chance I get.
Intelligence FTW! (Its amazing that one has to even say it...)
If one of the astronauts wants to play chess by mail, that's fine.
They actually did a game over the summer between Mission Control and Chamitoff, which ended with MCC resigning on 8-13: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition17/chess_chamitoff.html.
Regarding the PR stunt, yes, it is one because it's try to draw lot's of attention, but so is every outreach program run by any kind of organization.
Part of NASA's mission, to quote Michael Griffin, is that "NASA is in the inspiration business." (http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=29218) That in itself is PR.
Space exploration needs to be on the forefront of science, along with things like the LHC, etc. Our country is on a decline on the science, technology, and innovation front. Our government has let it go by the wayside (see http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=29133 specifically for the space program), and too much of Generation Y is ignoring science, going into "soft" fields (preaching to the choir).
Like I said, NASA needs to inspire more young children to get into science and technology. If what it takes is a "PR stunt" like this, then so be it. Sure, NASA benefits from it, but the real beneficiaries, if it works out right, are the children, and by extension, future society.
So, the choices we get to vote on are chosen in advance by people with little understanding of the complexity of the issues involved?
Somehow this seems strangely familiar...
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
The kids are the team that won "this year's Kindergarten through Third Grade National Championship." The commentary on the US Chess site mentions that the kids favor "classical patterns" - I'd guess part of their training involves learning many of the well-known scenarios and techniques.
Also given the timescales involved (the vote's open for a week, the station crew member is aiming for a minimum of about 1 move/week on his end), the kids likely have a chance to think it through and discuss - it's not like they have to come up with 4 moves constrained by a 2-hour speedchess match clock.
The crew of Soyuz 9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_9 played chess with the ground in 1970. They had a zero-g chess board that the pieces could clip on to.