The Long Ow…
Go, the ancient board-game, is an exercise in strategy, and (in the words of an enthusiast site) “an analogy with life, an intense meditation, a mirror of one’s personality, an exercise in abstract reasoning, or, when played well, a beautiful art in which Black and White dance across the board in delicate balance.”
Go is also seen as the last bastion of human superiority over computers in the realm of board games… or was until last Thursday, when the Go program MoGo, running on an 800-core supercomputer, beat 8-dan professional Go player Myungwan Kim at the U.S. Go Congress.
The game generated a great deal of interest and discussion of the game’s tactical and philosophical implications– and of it portents for the competitiveness of humanity. At a rare loss for words after the game, David Doshay, the programmer who suggested the match, wondered “How much time do we have left?”
More at the American Go Association.
As we pack for the singularity, we might send bright and cheerful birthday greetings to Enid Blyton, the creator of such children’s favorites as The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, and Noddy.
By one measure– UNESCO’s Index Translationum, a ranking of most-translated authors– Blyton is the sixth most popular author of all time… almost tied with Shakespeare. The television show based on Noddy is the longest running show on British television since 1955, and continues to air to this day.
