Pros and cons of chess

"Yet, rather than relying on metaphysical or religious answers, Hawking and Mlodinow seek to find a firm and scientific explanation for why we are here. Hawking’s ‘God-not-required’ approach to the question of our existence has sparked controversy and debate..."

It's "God-not-required", not a proof of gods. It is metaphysical speculation, and it's nothing new under the sun.

Even nine-year-old children can create robots that can "feel" and "perceive" already. The toy kit is called Lego Mindstorms 2.0. Just plug the sensors to let the robot "feel" and kids can drag-drop-and-connect the graphic command modules for the robot's "perception."

My apologies, Elroch, but the words "perceive", and "sense" are the problem here. To virtually perceive, or virtually sense, is different, therefore not redundant, from perceiving and sensing.

Huh?

Perception involves the imposition of order. It's quite distinct from sensing and quite apart from the objective. When Roomba figures this out, it will stop acting brain damaged with every floor irregularity.

Hilarious!

The game "Operation" could also create malpractice lawsuits if you're not careful

Does it? I blame the incomplete programming of the Roomba manufacturer then.

it's like releasing a chess engine that does not have "en passant" as a legal move for consideration.

My bad. I have corrected my original post.

I really should have been more thorough. I had a bad feeling that my wordings would come back to bite me like an opponent's passed pawn.

See how all this is still related to chess?

Interesting...I'm not sure why I expressed it..."When Roomba figures this out...".

I guess I got side tracked wondering if Roomba believes in programmers.

Of course, then I started wondering if a person doesn't believe in God, should the manufactuer be held responsible?

Finally, I realized I've already done laps on this track and decided to fix lunch.

I'll limit my scope for my arguments:

Roomba's behavior is defined by its physiology and how it was programmed by the manufacturer. This is similar (not exactly) to how a child's behavior and how the parents have been training/guiding him/her. I would not go out all the way to God.

Once a machine/robot has been programmed to keep adding more if-then choices beyond the limitations of its original programming, showing the capability to learn, then I would be glad to join the discussion on how it would disprove its creator's initiative to create itself.

As of now, chess engine calculations are expansive, but limited to the game of chess, so those do not apply to my condition.

With a small edit i think i have my new email signature file.  of course attributing it to "MyCowsCanFly" may raise some eyebrows in the real world. 

I chuckle when I think about an imaginary book I suggested in another thread:

"Loopholes in the Three Laws of Robotics" - Deep Blue

Chess does very well help in other areas n life. Chess increases the math IQ of a person in some cases 30 points. It is a great way to meet new people and some people just think of it as a fun hobby and not just some way to raise your IQ. Taking the time to make a list of cons of chess is a con of your time in my opinion.

Has there been a case study of how chess play and study raises people's Math IQ?

I'm intrigued by the "30 points" quantification.

EDIT

Don't worry, it hasn't worked in your case.

Eh people. Chess is a beautiful thing to do amongst millions of beautiful things to do. Chess is about appreciating Cause and Effect. Chess is an art form where we perceive the interrelationship and unfolding nature of cause and effect. Cause and effect is a very big picture!

If you play chess long enough, you begin to realize that you cannot appreciate the causality on the board without realising that there is also a causality going on in your mind at the same time and interrelated with what is happening on the board. Both the chess game and our mind are part of the same transforming system (that we do not actually see directly).

The transforming system that we are immersed in (not seperate from), is the big picture chess game of life itself, but there are no winners. There are no loosers. It is not a draw. Forget about intelligence. It is a bogus concept because the concept is deludely believed to exist external from our culture. Intelligence is nothing but culture itself and thus it can be validly measured a millions ways and can produce a million different valid results. Question it! Don't take anything on face value including your own thought processes which do not have an independent existence from the culture that you are in.

Cheers

I don't want to appreciate cause and effect

 ... with a flamethrower!

There was Skinner vs. The Big White Rat.

Skinner playing white, won on time.