Japanese chess | Wang Mingwan: People are powerless, so they are full of honor

Original address: https://mainichi.jp/articles/20201001/dde/018/040/005000c

Hara: Man is powerless, therefore precious Go Wang Mei 9th dan

From: Daily News

Kokata: Iwanami Shinsho Editorial Department

Author: Wang Minghuan Jiudan

In addition to the discovery of the Pythagorean theorem, Pythagoras also famously believed that "rational numbers can explain the whole world", so he denied the "irrational number" all his life. Starting from the concept of "number", there are far more irrational numbers than rational numbers, and rational numbers are equivalent to the algae floating on the surface of the water in the sea of irrational numbers. But in human daily life, we construct so-called "rationals" from natural numbers that we can understand, so we can naturally only see the extension line of natural numbers, the rational numbers. If we were to imagine the depth of the sea from the seaweed in front of us, I think it would be very difficult to imagine, very difficult.

Human Go has so far relied on "chess theory" such as stereotypes and proverbs to lay the foundation. But Go AI does not start from the "chess theory", through self-playing, on the basis of mechanical learning and huge computation, it surpasses humans. For people who play chess, it's like when we believe that the world is made of rational numbers, and suddenly see a √2. The go that humans have studied so far, and what they have accumulated, in fact, in the game of Go with infinite variations, is nothing more than seaweed floating on the surface of the sea.

Because human beings do not have the information processing ability of AI, when faced with countless messy information, they will use "reason" to sort out and apply this method. "Reason" symbolizes the power of the intellect and is also an indispensable thing for us to live in the world. Of course, this has nothing to do with the emergence of AI, and this state will not be changed in the future. Because human beings can think about problems with "reason", we feel that we can still fight in the face of AI whose learning and calculation amount are hundreds of millions of times stronger than our own.

Since it is an indispensable thing in life, since there is something like a "theorem", everyone will have their own "reason". When playing chess, we all play with our own unique "reason" to play against the opponent, and affect each other in the verification. In this regard, each game of chess is not just a number left on the chess sheet, but a work that only two chess players can create at that moment.

In the age of AI, humans are bound to be more cautious about whether what they think is a limited and effective way to "reason." But even if there is no direct connection with truth, they will not feel inferior because of it. So at this moment, what I think of is "man is powerless, so he is full of dignity."