© Mark Ollig
Alan Turing asked the audience during a lecture Feb. 20, 1947, at the London Mathematical Society, if a machine could learn to play chess.
Turing discussed the possibility of an electronic device capable of playing a human in a game of chess.
“Intelligent Machinery” is the title of a report Alan Turing authored in 1948.
“I propose to investigate the question as to whether it is possible for machinery to show intelligent behavior,” reads the first sentence of the report.
As I read through Turing’s report, he addressed peoples’ uneasiness and fear when considering a machine reasoning and processing information like a human.
Turing admits that constructing an intelligent machine might be considered by many to be going against others’ religious beliefs.
Questions arose whether Turing endorsed creating intelligence in a machine more prominent than that within a human.
Some people felt threatened, fearing future intelligent mechanical devices would dominate human existence like in a science fiction novel.
Turing acknowledges the apprehensions and uneasiness about thinking machines and says intelligence is an emotional state rather than a mathematical one.
We need to remember Turing was speaking during the late 1940s when mechanical devices completed tedious, repetitive tasks.
Turing described how one piece of new computing machinery, the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), can quickly compute large numbers with no failures.
He may have been trying to evaluate the computer’s logical processing ability and its similarity to how the human brain solves problems.
Turing said some people feel intelligence in machinery would reflect its creator.
He counters this by comparing it with a discovery independently made by a student, being credited to the teacher.
Turing said while the teacher would be pleased with how his teaching method helped the student discover, the teacher would not take credit for the discovery.
The “Intelligent Machinery” report presents concerns we are still addressing today regarding autonomous artificial intelligence.
Turing writes about people using chess-playing “paper machines.”
“Playing against such a machine gives a definite feeling that one is pitting one’s wits against something alive,” Turing wrote.
To his statement, I recall Dec. 24, 1982, when our family celebrated Christmas Eve at my mother’s home in Winsted.
Her Christmas gift to me was the new digital computer chess system called Sensory Chess Challenger, which allows a human to play chess against a computer.
She knew I played many chess games with my father, who had died earlier in the year.
I recall many evenings sitting at the dining room table with my dad, each with our cup of coffee, strategizing while playing chess for hours.
We kept a record of wins and losses for fun, writing each game’s result on a piece of paper.
When the 1982 Christmas Eve festivities ended that evening, I drove back to my apartment, took the computer chess game console out of the box, and placed it on my kitchen table.
I plugged the chessboard into an AC outlet, set up the chess pieces, turned it on, and began playing chess against a computer for the first time.
I’ll admit, playing chess with a computer was an unusual experience.
I was surprised how the computer was strategically responding to each of my chess moves with eerily human-like intelligence.
The Sensory Chess Challenger was an excellent chess player, responding quickly to the moves I was making on the board.
While sitting at the table with my cup of coffee, I played quite a few games against the computer chess program.
Surprisingly, I managed to win a couple of games.
Playing computer chess that night felt like I was sitting across the chessboard from another person.
Of course, I remembered the many chess games with my dad.
Thanks, Mom, for the good memories your gift brought to me.
You can see a photo of the Sensory Chess Challenger at https://bit.ly/3iL4rfY.
Stay safe out there.
