“Thrilling”

“Thrilling” was Jane’s instant reaction when I told her I’d like to go to a World Premiere performance as part of the Manchester International Festival.

What is she like?

Doesn’t the above like it might even surpass To Kill a Mocking Bird?

https://allanbeardsworth.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/to-kill-a-mocking-bird-at-the-royal-exchange/

My daughters were similarly unenchanted. Daughter #1 said ‘who is he, some chess player?”

Jane chipped in ‘you can go instead of me, if you want’, helpfully. Clearly on a roll, she added ‘or you can go by yourself, there will lots of other loners there as well’.

Clearly, my family (excluding Tom, who is away) have no cultural appreciation.

Now, my reaction to learning about this show….was must see it, wow, and….then look at the poster and immediately recognise the moves on the right hand side of the poster ( e4, d4, Nc3 etc) as the opening moves of Garry’s traumatic last game (game 6) 19 move loss in the 1997 rematch vs Deep Blue. The game is imprinted on my mind: it was the singular defining moment when computers became better than humans. Garry has never lost so quickly nor so badly: when I met him last July, I half wanted to ask him about playing Deep Blue, but decided not to, since I know how psychologically crushing it was for him to lose in such a way: and I know that game 6 was actually the sign of being mentally crushed by the sheer pressure of playing such a relentless opponent.

For a few years after 1997, other top GMs tried to play against the silicon monsters. I recall my friend and England #1 being crushed in 2005 by Deep Hydra- a machine which could have crushed Deep Blue, and now, in 2013, my iPhone, iPad, PC….can all beat the world’s top players: the gap is so much it is pointless to play against them.

Last I knew, Deep Blue is now being used for airline ticketing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_(chess_computer). Sic transit gloria mundi, even for computers.

Now, who will go with me?

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