Python performance

[Denys Duchier]

Steve Holden <sholden at bellatlantic.net> writes:

> And Deep Blue "thinks"?  Please don't anthropomorphise: it "thinks" when it
> computes chess moves about as effectively as I "fly" when I'm in an
> aeroplane.

Interestingly enough, my former advisor Drew McDermott published a
couple of slightly contrasting articles on that subject.  The first
one "Artifical Intelligence Meets Natural Stupidity" (published by MIT
press in 1981 in "Mind Design: Philosophy, Psychology, Artificial
Intelligence") is highly recommended to all.  The second one "How
Intelligent is Deep Blue?" (one version was published in the New York
Times in 1997.  another is still available at
ftp://ftp.cs.yale.edu/pub/mcdermott/papers/deepblue.txt) is more
directly related to Steve's comment above.  I like it for the quote:

        "Saying Deep Blue doesn't really think about chess is like
         saying an airplane doesn't really fly because it doesn't flap
         its wings."

Note that Drew is not arguing that Deep Blue thinks, but rather
against the too natural inclination to assert that it doesn't for all
the wrong reasons.

Cheers,

-- 
Dr. Denys Duchier			Denys.Duchier at ps.uni-sb.de
Forschungsbereich Programmiersysteme	(Programming Systems Lab)
Universitaet des Saarlandes, Geb. 45	http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/~duchier
Postfach 15 11 50			Phone: +49 681 302 5618
66041 Saarbruecken, Germany		Fax:   +49 681 302 5615