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The game is literally over, and the future is bleak indeed. On May 11, Garry Kasparov, acknowledged to be the greatest chess player in history, lost to a machine. IBM's supercomputer, RS/6000 SP, a.k.a. Deep Blue, didn't just beat Kasparov, it buried him in the last game of the otherwise even match. To some people, Kasparov's loss signified one of the final declaratory steps toward the computer's total domination of man and society. Never mind that in 1996 Kasparov had soundly thrashed Deep Blue's predecessor, a machine that could calculate 200 million moves per second. Never mind that it took more than 50 years of research to finally develop a machine that could beat the world champion. Never mind that it took a computer that can calculate up to 50 billion chess moves every three minutes. The sad fact is, humanity lost. But we shouldn't throw in the towel just yet: Kasparov has vowed that, given the chance, he will vindicate the power of man over machine once and for a^&%^TRE%^F&< (the rest of this item was deleted by our server)
From Sports Illustrated: Photograph by Kathy Willens/AP Photo
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