Logical Thinking and Artificial Intelligence
Chess position analysis can be used to illustrate the logical thinking. The following board position describes a chess problem which has to be solved with 2 moves.
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
The white has several options to make a move and checkmate the black. The move Rd5 × Rd7 or Rf7 × Rd7 will immediately provide material advantage to white. There are similar moves which capture pieces and provide immediate material advantages to the white. But a knight move Nc6 which does not provide any material advantage, provides a solution for checkmate for black in two moves.
| .. | Nc6 | |||
| 1 | ... | Kxf7 | 2 | g8Q++ |
| 1 | ... | Kxd5 | 2 | Qa2++ |
| 1 | ... | Rdxd5 | 2 | Re7++ |
| 1 | ... | Rfxd5 | 2 | Rf6++ |
| 1 | ... | Rdxf7 | 2 | Rd6++ |
| 1 | ... | Rfxf7 | 2 | Re5++ |
This is an example which illustrates the use of logical thinking. The logical thinking in chess progresses by evaluating the immediate material gain in each move. This will result in a solution which will require more number of moves or failure to checkmate. However, the not so obvious move of knight results in a very powerful checkmate. Even though this move does not look logical, it is the solution to 2 move check mate problem. A computer programmed to play chess might miss out some good opportunities if it does a material-based search to find moves. Several attempts have been made to build the powerful chess computers in history. But these chess computers have been defeated by Grandmaster human chess players.
Read more about this topic: Lateral Computing
Famous quotes containing the words logical, thinking, artificial and/or intelligence:
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—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
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—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
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—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Given for one instant an intelligence which could comprehend all the forces by which nature is animated and the respective positions of the beings which compose it, if moreover this intelligence were vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in the same formula both the movements of the largest bodies in the universe and those of the lightest atom; to it nothing would be uncertain, and the future as the past would be present to its eyes.”
—Pierre Simon De Laplace (1749–1827)