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It should be "a computer beating the human" in my opinion. It's just like parents bathing in the success of their offspring. Yes, they can be proud, but no, they didn't achieve the "win" themselves.



If the developers behind AlphaGo did the same calculations with pen and paper as they sat across from the human player, would that be them achieving the win themselves? If so, why does having an automated piece of paper change that?

"It's just like parents bathing in the success of their offspring."

There is no offspring here. There is a set of calculations, written by some people.


If a parent watches their child win a game, would that be them achieving the win themselves? If so, why does having nine months of creation time and ten years of training time change that?


There is no child here. There is a deterministic set of calculations. The developers created a deterministic set of calculations, and then executed those calculations.

AlphaGo is not a child. AlphaGo is a set of deterministic calculations, defined and created by some people. Your question about humans and their children is irrelevant. There is no child here.

In this flawed analogy, the "parents" are the developers, and the "child" is a set of calculations. If someone wrote down a set of calculations, and then executed those calculations and won, is it right to say that the person who wrote down those calculations won? I suggest that it is.


And yet the operative fact is that a human could not execute those calculations in a lifetime.


So what? Doesn't change the facts. There is no child here. There is a set of deterministic calculations written by some people, and executed.


I agree with EliRivers.

I'm pretty sure that if I wrote a child from scratch (AGCTTAACGGUAA ... etc), understood the underlying mechanisms connecting proteins to wining a baseball tournament ... I should get some credit for the win :)

There is no insight in making a child (can be done totally drunk and half passed out), although there is some in education.


please give the definition for a set of deterministic calculations.


Are you serious? You want me to tell you what calculations are? Having trouble using google with those flippers, I expect.




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