Thursday, December 02, 2004

Does Deep Blue present a challenge to Mormon religious thinking?

No doubt this question has been keeping you up nights. Have another cup of coffee, turn your brain on to overdrive and read Chess, Computers, and Spiritual Knowledge. Here are a few excerpts:

The wonder of this [the computer's ability to play "strategically"] lies in the fact that Deep Blue did not have any "deep strategy" algorithm. Its programmers did not design it to think strategically....At some point, millions of calculations per minute transformed itself into intuition.

The divide between the tactical calculation of [an] open position and the strategic intuition of a closed one arguably mirrors an ancient distinction in philosophy between two sorts of knowledge: episteme and techne....Mormon thinkers eager to lionize the seeming absence of a well-developed LDS theological tradition have frequently latched on to something like this distinction.....Deep Blue, however, seems to present a challenge to the neat dichotomy upon which this apologetic rests.

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