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:
“I see mysteries and complications wherever I look, and I have never met a steadily logical person.”
—Martha Gellhorn (b. 1908)
“Men, my dear, are very queer animals, a mixture of horse- nervousness, ass-stubbornness, and camel-malice—with an angel bobbing about unexpectedly like the apple in the posset, and when they can do exactly as they please, they are very hard to drive.
Oh, England. Sick in head and sick in heart,
Sick in whole and every part,
And yet sicker thou art still
For thinking that thou art not ill.”
—Thomas Henry Anonymous (1825–95)
“Before I finally went into winter quarters in November, I used to resort to the north- east side of Walden, which the sun, reflected from the pitch pine woods and the stony shore, made the fireside of the pond; it is so much pleasanter and wholesomer to be warmed by the sun while you can be, than by an artificial fire. I thus warmed myself by the still glowing embers which the summer, like a departed hunter, had left.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Nota: man is the intelligence of his soil,
The sovereign ghost. As such, the Socrates
Of snails, musician of pears, principium
And lex. Sed quæritur: is this same wig
Of things, this nincompated pedagogue,
Preceptor to the sea?”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)