10 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
Tablebases
t. In 1977, Thompson showed up at the World Computer Chess Championship th a new creation, a database that played the king and queen versus king and rook endgame perfectly. (KQKR is the abbreviation.) It wasn'1 an engine; there was no thinking required. Thompson had generated a database that essentially solved chess backwards, what we call retrograde analysis. It started from checkmate and worked its way back until it contained every single possible position with that material balance. Then i...Folksonomies: asymmetrical thinking
Folksonomies: asymmetrical thinking
1 
notes
notes10 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
Asymmetrical Psychology: Computers Use Knights Better Tha...
e. Chess players have the most trouble visualizing the moves of knights because their move is unlike anything else in the game, an L-shaped hop instead of a predictable straight line like the other pieces. Computers, of course, don't visualize anything at all, and so manage every piece with equal skill. I believe it was Bent Larsen, the first GM victim of a computer in tournament play, who stated that computers dropped a few hundred rating points if you eliminated their knights. This is an ex...Folksonomies: computational thinking asymmetrical psychology
Folksonomies: computational thinking asymmetrical psychology
1 notes
notes16 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
The Web is the Death of the Anecdote
Surveillance serves not just as a legal and historical
record but as a record of rep: proof that you’ve done
what you say you’ve done. You bark, and anyone on
the mesh can search to see if you also bite. It’s the
foundation of the reputation economy.
It’s not just video, of course, but surveillance of all
types. Ubiquitous, ever-present surveillance has become
the new public record in countless habitats. You’ve
seen the phrase, “Links or didn’t happen,” right?
Without footage... 1 notes
notes"Links or it didn't happen," if something is not on video, the oral history is worthless.
04 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The "Second Half of the Chessboard"
Folksonomies: metaphors exponential growth
Folksonomies: metaphors exponential growth
1 notes
notesAn interesting reference to the exponential growth when the Vizicar asked the king for doubling growth of grains for each square of the chessboard he had invented. Not terribly large amounts at first, but they become vast as we work across the boards 64 squares.
07 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
1 Kings 20:10-12
10 Then Ben-Hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful.”
11 The king of Israel answered, “Tell him: ‘One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off.’”
12 Ben-Hadad heard this message while he and the kings were drinking in their tents,[a] and he ordered his men: “Prepare to attack.” So they prepared to attack the city.
1 One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off.
10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
A Deceptive God
Balthamos said quietly, “The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty, those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves, the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are, and Dust is only a name for what happens when matter begins to understand itself. Matter loves matter. It seeks to know more about itself, and Dust is formed. The first angels condensed out of Dus... 1 notes
notesUsually a fake god is described as someone with special powers, but Pullman's god is merely an angel that preceded other angels into existence and lied to them about their origins, when, in fact, we are all products of the natural world.
23 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
The Law is King in America
But where, says some, is the King of America? I'll tell you. Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolu... 1 notes
notesAnd the crown is demolished and scattered among the people.
23 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
The Monarchy Paradox
There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and useless. 1 notes
notesThe King must be cut off and distanced from the governed, the very thing he is supposed to be most knowledgeable about.
02 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
King of Diamonds
In the World of the Blind / the one-eyed man is an hallucinated idiot
1 In the World of the Blind / the one-eyed man is an hallucinated idiot
02 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
One Who Can See in the Country of the Blind
"Why did you not come when I called you?" said the blind man. "Must you be led like a child? Cannot you hear the path as you walk?"
Nunez laughed. "I can see it," he said.
"There is no such word as see," said the blind man, after a pause. "Cease this folly and follow the sound of my feet."
Nunez followed, a little annoyed.
"My time will come," he said.
"You'll learn," the blind man answered. "There is much to learn in the world."
"Has no one told you, 'In the Country of the Blind the On...The protagonist in HG Wells story can see, but that just means the society of blind people he encounters think him mad.
