My Nephew’s Martian Retreat

Thanks for your comments.
#1 by ironman
#2 by goddess
#3 by irfanhamid
#4 by humairshah
#7 by qusman1

#7: I guess bhateejay mian was talking about longer-molecular-chain hydrocarbons--he was talking about plastics and polymers.


Chowk is amazing! Interaction with the readers is an extremely satisfying experience. In this regard Chowk beats all other websites I know of.

Dear Ras Siddiqui,
Yes, we should meet soon. FOSA is arranging a seminar at Stanford on May 1. Hope you`ll come.

Niazmund,
C.

Qibla AHC- Tell your bhateeja that hydrocarbons are not rare in space at all. Methane could be easily gotten from the gas giants in the solar system (or venus for that matter).

Cemendtaur Sahib,

Yeh Nephew kuch ziyadah hi zaheen saabit huay!

Ab Kab mulaqat ho rahi hai aap say?

Ras

irfan,

``In chess you know ALL the constraints, rules and eventualities.``


Methinks you belittle the noble game Sir. Chess is not about `rules and constraints` only.

There are a couple hundred openings (all analysed to death I must say) and most chess programs are hardcoded to follow the main opening lines. The endings are also fairly easy to analyse.

Its the middle game where the meat lies. Here, there are no `standard rules and constraints`. To judge a middle game position is one of the most difficult tasks even for a grandmaster, what to speak of a computer program. The grandmaster chooses one among several equally good lines based on his intuition...which is based on his experience and personal style.

The computer is extremely good at tactics...not strategy...which is long term and varies with each position. To code in strategy into the program requires much more skill that a run-of-the-mill programmer. Thats why IBM put their best people to create `deep blue`.

- - - -

Personally, my favorite chess program is JESTER: http://www.ludochess.com/

I`m able to beat it about once in 20 games. That happens only if I survive the opening 15 moves where the program`s enormous tactical strength is fully manifest. Usually I`m down a piece and few pawns by the 15th move.

- - - -

You must have heard of Jose Capablanca, cuban, world champion in the early 20th century. He thought he`d anaylsed every possible move in chess and was recommending a bigger board (more squares and pieces)...to make it more challenging!! Well, the very next championship Alexander Alekhine beat him!


There`s more to this game than rules, my friend.


cheers,

hmmm..
nice idea... he is a kool kid.. actualy!

A.H. Cemendtaur:

You didn`t mention your nephew`s age. If he`s below 16, then I do believe you have a rocket scientist on your hands, and you can tell your sister to relax, because people this smart hardly ever conform to the mainstream.

Ironman:

Beating the pants off of Gary Kasparov and roaming around on Mars are completely different things. In chess you know ALL the constraints, rules and eventualities. Not so while roaming on Mars. Given today`s processor horsepower, a decent CS graduate could write a chess program that decimates 98% of chess grandmasters alive. Another thing that must be kept in mind is that NASA`s Mars exploration program is a budget constrained initiative. They are trying to make do with the cheapest hardware/software. Building intelligence into the rovers is something that would definitely fall outside their expense limits.

Regards,
Irfan Hamid.

``Yes, making robots that perform complex tasks is not going to be easy. But it is definitely a lot cheaper and an efficient way to pave way for space exploration than to spend billions of dollars in sending humans to inhospitable places, places that we only take a giant step to and back``

One smart Nephew you have! A 6-year-old space obsessed kid once asked me that if space is ``empty space``, how come the sun and the planets don`t fall? Reminded me of Newton`s apple. Reminded me how stupid I am and how smart others are.

Uncleji,

Your nephew is right about building more sophisticated robots.

I mean it took 6 hours (or 2 days ?) for the mars lander to crawl out of its landing pit. This is mainly because enough intelligence was not (could not) be built into the robot to do the task itself. Instead it was controlled by radio wves from earth. these waves taking couple of minutes to cover the distance.

Clearly, controlling a lander to saturn or jupiter in this manner (with radio waves taking half-an-hour one way) will not work.

- - - - -

Can we build such intelligent (human-like) robots?

Chess programs that can give kasparov a black eye show that it should be possible...but we`re quite a bit away from the day we can build terminator-like robots.


cheers,