It is a real real pity we are not reading Clarke on this forum, and instead discussing some dark Secrets.jdart wrote:As Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
--Jon
I would disagree with anyone posting here, for the simple reason that, in case you do not know how your algorithms work, how you possibly could be certain that the computer calculates them precisely? Maybe the comp is cheating after all? How can one be certain that, even if some changes passed in a patch, they are indeed better than other changes that failed?
There is no such thing as magic. It is a simple alias for the incomprehensible. And the incomprehensible is such, only until it gets unveiled and sufficiently understood.
If you take 10 chess programmers, I guess half of them will have only a modest understanding of their subject, a couple of will be very good, and 1 or 2 will have excellent knowledge of most intricacies. In this way, seemingly, there are degres of magic, depending on one's understanding. Of course, as anything is achievable, one can understand all possible algorithms the Wolrd can hide, but I guess a sufficient extent of proficiency will be acquired only during one's 100-150th life.