¶ Computer Asks an Original Question
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Computer Asks an Original Question:
“All of a sudden as a consequence of variables in the environment and in the machine itself which had not been anticipated by the machine’s designers and operators it went ahead and asked an original question. That occurrence requires explanation. Computers can play games, and the same computer can play two games. The same computer can play chess, backgammon, and checkers. Now I am going to have a computer playing backgammon and checkers at the same time. The things you have to do in order to be able to make a move in backgammon are much more complex than the things you have to do in order to make a move in checkers. Therefore, the checker moves get played a little more rapidly than do the backgammon moves. So the checker moves are are going like this (taps table rapidly) and the backgammon moves (taps more slowly) more slowly. The fast moves are not whole-number multiples of the time lapses of the slower (bigger) moves. Every once in a while these movement rates get to the point where one is catching up to the other and suddenly the two come momentarily together in seeming synchronization. You get this synchronization hum in variable-speed motors such as the twin motors of an airplane or a boat. When the computer’s two game moves get into the synchronization phase”
