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thought experiment

Posted By: Chuck Bower
Date: Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 5:37 p.m.

In Response To: we need a lot more Al Fallers (Matt Cohn-Geier)

Suppose you could program a bot to play like a specific human, technically. Do that for the entire field at Pitt except for one player -- Al Faller.

Conduct two repeated trial tournaments, one with the real Al Faller against the real players, the second with the real Al Faller playing against the cloned bots. Repeat sufficient enough times to get statistical significance you're looking for. Will Al's performance in the two events be similar, i.e. as many main wins, main runnerups, consolation wins, etc?

Al makes many unconventional plays, some of which are clearly 'wrong', others so imaginative that we may not be sure. Humans hone in on the wrong stuff (and maybe the other plays, too) and think "I should steamroll this guy." Then Al, with some lucky rolls, starts building a lead in the match. The human gets annoyed: "this guy can't play his opening rolls correctly and yet he's beating me!" Cool water --> hot water --> (you know what's next).

Meanwhile Al's just cruisin' along thinking "this is fun!" He just plays his usual erratic (what it appears to some of us, anyway) game.

No doubt in my mind (or anyone I've heard from) that Al was lucky this weekend. (Very likely so were Bob Glass, Neil Kaz,...) There was a game against Michael Edge (unfortunately not recorded so it runs the risk of exaggeration) that was truly "one for the ages". What I'm wondering is if he got any unintended help along the way.

Messages In This Thread

• Congrats to Pittsburgh BGOnliners
  Bill Riles -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 3:53 a.m.
  • Congrats to Pittsburgh BGOnliners
    Coolrey -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 9:13 a.m.
    • Congrats to Pittsburgh BGOnliners
      Bill Riles -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 2:52 p.m.
    • we need a lot more Al Fallers
      Chuck Bower -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 3:27 p.m.
      • we need a lot more Al Fallers
        Bill Riles -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 3:34 p.m.
        • we need a lot more Al Fallers
          Coolrey -- Wednesday, 25 February 2009, at 1:34 a.m.
      • we need a lot more Al Fallers
        Matt Cohn-Geier -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 9:38 p.m.
        • we need a lot more Al Fallers
          Chuck Bower -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 11:01 p.m.
          • we need a lot more Al Fallers
            Matt Cohn-Geier -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 11:30 p.m.
            • we need a lot more Al Fallers
              Rich Munitz -- Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 2:09 a.m.
            • thought experiment
              Chuck Bower -- Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 5:37 p.m.
              • thought experiment
                Barry Silliman -- Thursday, 26 February 2009, at 1:24 a.m.
                • thought experiment
                  Rich Munitz -- Thursday, 26 February 2009, at 4:26 a.m.
                  • thought experiment
                    Coolrey -- Friday, 27 February 2009, at 8:43 p.m.
                • thought experiment
                  Chuck Bower -- Sunday, 1 March 2009, at 5:12 p.m.
      • we need a lot more Al Fallers
        neilkaz -- Tuesday, 24 February 2009, at 12:36 a.m.
      • we need a lot more Al Fallers
        Coolrey -- Wednesday, 25 February 2009, at 1:00 a.m.
        • we need a lot more Al Fallers
          Matt Cohn-Geier -- Wednesday, 25 February 2009, at 1:08 a.m.
          • we need a lot more Al Fallers
            Coolrey -- Wednesday, 25 February 2009, at 1:23 a.m.
    • Congrats to Pittsburgh BGOnliners
      Barry Silliman -- Thursday, 26 February 2009, at 12:53 a.m.
      • Congrats to Pittsburgh BGOnliners
        Coolrey -- Friday, 27 February 2009, at 5:25 p.m.
  • Congrats to Pittsburgh BGOnliners
    Bill Riles -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 2:11 p.m.
    • Congrats to Pittsburgh BGOnliners
      Chuck Bower -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 3:14 p.m.
      • Let's not forget...
        Chuck Bower -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 4:41 p.m.
        • Let's not forget...
          Coolrey -- Wednesday, 25 February 2009, at 12:31 a.m.
      • Congrats to Pittsburgh BGOnliners
        Barry Silliman -- Thursday, 26 February 2009, at 1:35 a.m.
        • Congrats to Pittsburgh BGOnliners
          Rich Munitz -- Thursday, 26 February 2009, at 4:32 a.m.
          • Congrats to Pittsburgh BGOnliners
            Coolrey -- Friday, 27 February 2009, at 5:34 p.m.
  • Congrats to Pittsburgh BGOnliners
    neilkaz -- Monday, 23 February 2009, at 4:47 p.m.