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Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bot?

Posted By: Chuck Bower
Date: Thursday, 15 October 2009, at 5:21 p.m.

In Response To: a gnu forum poll? (Stick)

The only reason the top humans play 'so poorly' is they're playing human opponents and the optimal decision to win is sometimes far from the optimal decision for their error rate.

That sounds like a human speaking.

The human-vs-bot arguments have been going on for about a dozen years (well, longer than that but it's before JF only the elite few got access to a good bot).

There was a famous session where Ballard and Senk independently played JF (money sessions) at Malcolm Davis's house with Kit Woolsey (and maybe others) as onlookers. I believe (should look at Tom's Encyclopedic site to be sure) Senk lost 66 points and Ballard won 66 points. The matches were recorded and it was initially stated that they were going to be published. Never happened. Why not? The real reason is likely mundane (too much work?) but one suspicion/rumor is that the level of play may have been embarrassing.

A long time ago Neil said he would back SW3 (I believe that was the version) at matchplay against any human. I think it was matchlengths 5 and longer. AFAIK no one took him up on it.

Early on people asked about bots (JF for sure, maybe SW) being allowed to enter human tournaments. I heard someone tried it in a JP in Europe but apparently (again, rumorish) they couldn't get enough players to sign up because humans were afraid to play the bots.

I've heard many stories of players beating bots on their home turf (quiet of the home office). Statistically significantly?

While you guys are drumming up interest in this monster team event at the Nordic Open, maybe someone could think up a way of answering these bot-vs-human questions. That might be interesting, too.

Messages In This Thread

• a gnu forum poll?
  jm -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 7:18 p.m.
  • a gnu forum poll?
    Rich Munitz -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 7:54 p.m.
    • a gnu forum poll?
      jm -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 8:27 p.m.
      • a gnu forum poll?
        Rich Munitz -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 8:59 p.m.
        • a gnu forum poll?
          Christian Munk-Christensen -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 9:06 p.m.
          • a gnu forum poll?
            Rich Munitz -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 9:18 p.m.
            • a gnu forum poll?
              Wayne -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 10:22 p.m.
              • a gnu forum poll?
                JM -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 10:30 p.m.
                • a gnu forum poll?
                  neilkaz -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 12:05 a.m.
              • a gnu forum poll?
                joe freedman -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 2:29 a.m.
              • a gnu forum poll?
                garyo -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 5:56 p.m.
                • a gnu forum poll?
                  Phil Simborg -- Saturday, 17 October 2009, at 2:29 p.m.
            • a gnu forum poll?
              Christian Munk-Christensen -- Thursday, 15 October 2009, at 8:18 a.m.
              • a gnu forum poll?
                Stick -- Thursday, 15 October 2009, at 8:47 a.m.
    • I agree that this only leads to dubious ego issues
      David -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 8:41 p.m.
    • a gnu forum poll?
      Steve Mellen -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 9:06 p.m.
  • a gnu forum poll?
    adambulldog -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 9:23 p.m.
    • a gnu forum poll?
      Keene -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 10:37 p.m.
      • a gnu forum poll?
        adambulldog -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 11:42 p.m.
        • a gnu forum poll?
          Stick -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 11:55 p.m.
          • a gnu forum poll?
            adambulldog -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 12:07 a.m.
  • a gnu forum poll?
    Daniel Murphy -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 10:04 p.m.
  • a gnu forum poll?
    Barry Silliman -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 10:45 p.m.
    • a gnu forum poll?
      Bill Riles -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 7:27 p.m.
  • a gnu forum poll?
    Phil simborg -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 10:51 p.m.
    • a gnu forum poll?
      JM -- Tuesday, 13 October 2009, at 11:56 p.m.
      • a gnu forum poll?
        neilkaz -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 12:05 a.m.
  • a gnu forum poll?
    neilkaz -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 12:04 a.m.
  • a gnu forum poll?
    Chuck Bower -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 5:07 p.m.
    • a gnu forum poll?
      Rich Munitz -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 6:42 p.m.
      • a gnu forum poll?
        Coolrey -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 10:11 p.m.
    • a gnu forum poll?
      Stick -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 9:37 p.m.
      • a gnu forum poll?
        Christian Munk-Christensen -- Thursday, 15 October 2009, at 9:20 a.m.
      • Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bot?
        Chuck Bower -- Thursday, 15 October 2009, at 5:21 p.m.
        • Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bot?
          Daniel Murphy -- Thursday, 15 October 2009, at 6:56 p.m.
          • Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bot?
            Chuck Bower -- Saturday, 17 October 2009, at 3:17 p.m.
            • Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bot?
              Daniel Murphy -- Saturday, 17 October 2009, at 4:43 p.m.
              • Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bot?
                Michael Depreli -- Saturday, 17 October 2009, at 4:59 p.m.
                • Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bot?
                  Daniel Murphy -- Saturday, 17 October 2009, at 5:00 p.m.
              • Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bot?
                Matt Cohn-Geier -- Saturday, 17 October 2009, at 6:07 p.m.
                • Who's afraid of the Big Bad Bot?
                  Daniel Murphy -- Saturday, 17 October 2009, at 6:23 p.m.
    • a gnu forum poll?
      Michael Depreli -- Thursday, 15 October 2009, at 6:34 a.m.
  • a gnu forum poll?
    mtuhtan -- Wednesday, 14 October 2009, at 8:52 p.m.
  • How to motivate yourself to improve
    Timothy Chow -- Thursday, 15 October 2009, at 12:30 a.m.
  • a gnu forum poll?
    Christian Munk-Christensen -- Thursday, 15 October 2009, at 1:18 p.m.