On Sat, 2007-04-07 at 14:36 -0400, Matt Kingston wrote: > What I want from a commercial go playing program is one that I can use > to learn to be a better go player. This brings up two important > deficiencies in the "win by 0.5" strategy. If I'm always loosing by > half a point, It's difficult for me to see when I'm playing well and > when I'm playing poorly. If the computer doesn't exploit my weaknesses > because it knows that it will win anyway, then I won't learn to defend > properly. I'll never know if I "almost won" or if the computer was > just toying with me the whole way. The feedback from "the computer > just killed everything" can help me play better.
Hi Matt, I have heard this argument before, but I personally do not subscribe to it. Please let me explain why. Of what learning purpose is it if you are losing the game and the computer gets you to focus on a dramatic battle somewhere that is totally irelevant? What are you being taught? I think you would develop the wrong sense of the game. Instead of thinking and planning for a win, you would be thinking and planning for local battles - and as UCT and MC have shown us, this is the WRONG way to think about the game. In fact this is how beginners think about the game. It doesn't seem to me like a good learning aid to try to get the computers to "emulate" the losing strategy weaker players use. I don't think this is a theoretical discussion either, because when I'm testing and watching Lazarus play I learn already from watching this masterful strategy. In fact, I've come to prefer this style. It somehow makes the program seem more mature - less like a child. A mature adult does not find pleasure in the foolish things a child might - but instead gradually learns what is important. And go really is all about that - knowing what is really important and what is not and I would rather learn from a player who demonstrates that to me. - Don _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list computer-go@computer-go.org http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
