We are taught from a young age that winning is the objective of playing a game, but what if it wasn’t?
What if it was to learn some hidden truth, or to explore your own tendencies to over-react, to become too rash, to become overly-defensive or to be disappointed when things didn’t always go your way? What if you took each game as a learning opportunity?
If you take a different perspective, bots and AI can help you a great deal - they aren’t going to feel smug about beating you, or remind you of it over a family dinner, or brag about it on social media. They can help you improve your gameplay and yourself.
I’m reminded of this when I think of recent AI advances in Go. The moves and strategies that emerged have left that community in awe, because they were open to learning from what AI produced, not just obsessed with trying to win.
That does not quite seem to be the point. There is a huge difference between "better" and "crushing".
> We are taught from a young age that winning is the objective of playing a game, but what if it wasn’t?
No, we aren't. The are multiple players in a game. So you win some, they win some and sure, you are taught to try to win more than 50%. But if you win 90+% of the time, you are wasting both players' time.
We are taught from a young age that winning is the objective of playing a game, but what if it wasn’t?
What if it was to learn some hidden truth, or to explore your own tendencies to over-react, to become too rash, to become overly-defensive or to be disappointed when things didn’t always go your way? What if you took each game as a learning opportunity?
If you take a different perspective, bots and AI can help you a great deal - they aren’t going to feel smug about beating you, or remind you of it over a family dinner, or brag about it on social media. They can help you improve your gameplay and yourself.
I’m reminded of this when I think of recent AI advances in Go. The moves and strategies that emerged have left that community in awe, because they were open to learning from what AI produced, not just obsessed with trying to win.