![]() |
Science Fiction
Dictionary Latest By
"The whole problem of energy sources is going to be solved by little solutions, not by some big new piece of technology that does everything. We got into this crisis by believing that we had one big piece of technology that would do everything (oil)."
|
![]() |
![]() This famous story was written by Ambrose Bierce in 1910. In it, you encounter the first chess playing automaton - a fully automated chess machine. You also first encounter the problems that humans have when they face superior machines.
Read it if you like; Moxon's Master is available on the web (in the public domain).
Compare to the robotic chess expert from First He Died (Time and Again) (1951), by Clifford Simak. This is the first reference that I know of for the idea that machines are unbeatable by humans at chess.
This story may have been inspired by Wolfgang von Kempelen's remarkable mechanical chess player, which was created in 1770. Incredibly, it beat a number of chess experts in public matches. However, the real genius behind the automaton chess player was an assistant concealed inside the cabinet.
The first references to chess-playing computers by scientists were made by Konrad Zuse in the early 1940's and by Alan Turing in 1945. Zuse reputedly wrote a chess program in the early 1940's using PlanKalkuel, the first high-level computer language (also created by Zuse). Claude Shannon described in 1949 how to program a computer for chess, proposing basic strategies for limiting the number of possibilities to be considered ("trimming the tree"). Turing wrote a computer chess program in 1950 (Turing was a relatively weak player); this was the same year that he proposed what came to be known as the Turing Test for machine intelligence. Dietrich Prinz wrote a chess-playing program for a general purpose computer (the Manchester Ferranti) in 1951.
Computer chess was implemented on the Univac MANIAC I computer (80K storage, 2400 vacuum tubes, using a six-by-six chessboard and limited players (no bishops). The 11Khz processor (11,000 operations-per-second) took 12 minutes to search 4 moves deep.
The first chess program with a complete board and set of pieces was written in 1957 by Alex Bernstein at MIT on an IBM 704 (a 47Khz processor looked 4 moves deep in 8 minutes). Read more at Computer chess history.
Compare to robotic chess expert from First He Died (Time and Again) (1951) by Clifford Simak. Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
resources: Automaton Chessplayer-related
news articles:
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
|
![]() |
Science Fiction
Timeline
WiFi and AI Team Up To See Through Walls
'The pitiless M rays pierced Earth and steel and densest concrete as if they were so much transparent glass...'
Climate Engineering In California Could Make Europe's Heat Waves Worse
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
Optimus Robot Will Be A Good Nanny, Says Musk
'Nanny is different,' Tom Fields murmured... 'she's not like a machine. She's like a person.'
ESA To Build Moon Bases Brick By Printed LEGO Brick
'We made a crude , small cell and were delighted - and, I admit, somewhat surprised - to find it worked.'
Does The Shortage Of Human Inputs Limit AI Development?
'...we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
Textiles That Harvest Energy And Store It
'The clothes and jewelery drew their tiny power requirements from her movements.'
LORIS Passive-Gripper Climbing Robot
'At the end of each appendage's eight fingers there are tinier appendages...'
Drug To Regenerate Teeth In Humans
'We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,' said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi.
|
![]() |
![]() |
Home | Glossary
| Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact
Us | FAQ | Advertise | ![]() Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™ Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved. |
![]() |