TRANSKRIBEERI 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:04.980
THE THINKING MACHINE by Jacques Foutrel It was absolutely impossible.
2
00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:29.660
TWENTY-FIVE CHESSMASTERS FROM THE WORLD AT LARGE four gathered in
3
00:00:29.710 --> 00:00:36.079
Boston for the annual championships, unanimously declared it impossible. And
4
00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:40.560
unanimity on any given point is an unusual mental condition
5
00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:45.619
for chess masters. Not one would concede for an instant
6
00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:50.079
that it was within the range of human achievement. Some
7
00:00:50.119 --> 00:00:52.899
grew red in the face as they argued it. Others
8
00:00:52.979 --> 00:00:57.119
smiled loftily and were silent. Still others dismissed the matter
9
00:00:57.469 --> 00:01:01.920
in a word. as wholly absurd. A casual remark by
10
00:01:01.960 --> 00:01:07.359
the distinguished scientist and logician, Professor Augustus S. F. X.
11
00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:12.430
Van Dusen, provoked the discussion. He had in the past
12
00:01:12.590 --> 00:01:17.409
aroused bitter disputes by some chance remark, in fact had
13
00:01:17.510 --> 00:01:21.549
been once a sort of controversial center of the sciences.
14
00:01:22.489 --> 00:01:24.890
It had been due to his modest announcement of a
15
00:01:25.010 --> 00:01:29.180
startling and unorthodox hypothesis that that he had been invited
16
00:01:29.239 --> 00:01:34.819
to vacate the chair of philosophy in a great university. Later,
17
00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:38.500
that university had felt honored when he accepted its degree
18
00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:44.329
of LLD. For a score of years, educational and scientific
19
00:01:44.409 --> 00:01:48.670
institutions of the world had amused themselves by crowding degrees
20
00:01:48.790 --> 00:01:51.890
upon him. He had initials that stood for things he
21
00:01:51.950 --> 00:01:58.030
couldn't pronounce. degrees from France, England, Russia, Germany, Italy, Sweden,
22
00:01:58.269 --> 00:02:02.290
and Spain. These were expressed recognition of the fact that
23
00:02:02.349 --> 00:02:06.719
his was the foremost brain in the sciences. The imprint
24
00:02:06.810 --> 00:02:11.379
of his crabbed personality lay heavily on half a dozen
25
00:02:11.460 --> 00:02:16.060
of its branches. Finally, there came a time when argument
26
00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:20.120
was respectfully silent in the face of one of his conclusions.
27
00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:24.159
The remark which had arrayed the chess masters of the
28
00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:28.240
world into so formidable and unanimous a dissent was made
29
00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:31.360
by Professor Van Dusen in the presence of three other
30
00:02:31.419 --> 00:02:36.490
gentlemen of note. One of these, Dr. Charles Elbert, happened
31
00:02:36.530 --> 00:02:41.189
to be a chess enthusiast. Chess is a shameless perversion
32
00:02:41.250 --> 00:02:44.949
of the functions of the brain, was Professor Van Dusen's
33
00:02:45.069 --> 00:02:50.139
declaration in his perpetually irritated voice. It is a sheer
34
00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:53.770
waste of effort. greater because it is possibly the most
35
00:02:54.009 --> 00:02:58.889
difficult of all fixed abstract problems. Of course logic will
36
00:02:59.009 --> 00:03:03.129
solve it. Logic will solve any problem. Not most of them,
37
00:03:03.210 --> 00:03:07.379
but any problem. A thorough understanding of its rules would
38
00:03:07.419 --> 00:03:11.520
enable anyone to defeat your greatest chess players. It would
39
00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:15.319
be inevitable, just as inevitable as the two and two
40
00:03:15.379 --> 00:03:20.340
make four, not sometimes, but all the time. I don't
41
00:03:20.379 --> 00:03:24.139
know chess because I never do useless things. But I
42
00:03:24.180 --> 00:03:27.659
could take a few hours of competent instruction and defeat
43
00:03:27.719 --> 00:03:30.500
a man who has devoted his life to it. His
44
00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:34.340
mind is cramped, bound down to the logic of chess.
45
00:03:34.810 --> 00:03:40.990
Mine is not. Mine employs logic in its widest scope. Dr.
46
00:03:41.289 --> 00:03:45.889
Albert shook his head vigorously. It is impossible, he asserted.
47
00:03:47.250 --> 00:03:51.360
Nothing is impossible, snapped the scientist. The human mind can
48
00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:54.960
do anything. It is all we have to lift us
49
00:03:55.020 --> 00:03:59.530
above the brute creation. For heaven's sake, leave us that.
50
00:04:00.710 --> 00:04:05.750
The aggressive tone, the uncompromising egotism, brought a flush to Dr.
51
00:04:05.870 --> 00:04:10.569
Albert's face. Professor Van Dusen affected many persons that way,
52
00:04:10.930 --> 00:04:16.189
particularly those fellow savants who themselves, men of distinction, had
53
00:04:16.290 --> 00:04:21.389
ideas of their own. Do you know the purposes of chess,
54
00:04:21.850 --> 00:04:27.939
its countless combinations? asked Dr. Albert. No, was the crabbed reply.
55
00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:32.079
I know nothing whatever of the game beyond the general
56
00:04:32.279 --> 00:04:36.889
purpose which I understand to be to move certain pieces
57
00:04:37.250 --> 00:04:41.550
in certain directions to stop an opponent from moving his king.
58
00:04:42.189 --> 00:04:47.839
Is that correct? Yes, said Dr. Albert slowly, but I
59
00:04:48.199 --> 00:04:52.680
never heard it stated just that way before. Then, if
60
00:04:52.779 --> 00:04:55.680
that is correct, I maintain that the true logician can
61
00:04:55.720 --> 00:04:59.709
defeat the chess expert by the pure mechanical rules of logic.
62
00:05:00.629 --> 00:05:03.550
I'll take a few hours sometime, acquaint myself with the
63
00:05:03.589 --> 00:05:07.269
moves of the pieces, and defeat you to convince you,
64
00:05:07.970 --> 00:05:12.379
Professor Van Dusen glared savagely into the eyes of Dr. Albert.
65
00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:19.089
Not me, said Dr. Albert. You say anyone. You, for
Load full transcript
instance,
66
00:05:19.250 --> 00:05:23.279
might defeat the greatest chess player. Would you be willing
67
00:05:23.379 --> 00:05:27.839
to meet the greatest chess player after you acquaint yourself
68
00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:33.180
with the game? Certainly, said the scientist. I have frequently
69
00:05:33.319 --> 00:05:35.860
found it necessary to make a fool of myself to
70
00:05:35.899 --> 00:05:40.310
convince people. I'll do it again. This, then, was the
71
00:05:40.509 --> 00:05:46.189
acrimonious beginning of the discussion, which aroused chess-masters and brought
72
00:05:46.329 --> 00:05:50.230
open dissent from eminent men who had not dared for
73
00:05:50.350 --> 00:05:55.350
years to dispute any assertion by the distinguished Professor Van Dusen.
74
00:05:56.310 --> 00:05:59.879
It was arranged that at the conclusion of the championships
75
00:06:00.389 --> 00:06:03.980
Professor Van Dusen should meet the winner. This happened to
76
00:06:04.019 --> 00:06:08.639
be Tchaikovsky, the Russian, who had been champion for half
77
00:06:08.680 --> 00:06:14.240
a dozen years. After this expected result of the tournament, Hillsbury,
78
00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:18.180
a noted American master, bit of morning with Professor Van
79
00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:22.160
Dusen in the latter's modest apartments on Beacon Hill. He
80
00:06:22.339 --> 00:06:27.730
left there with a sadly puzzled face. That afternoon Professor
81
00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:31.689
Van Dusen met the Russian champion. The newspapers had said
82
00:06:31.730 --> 00:06:35.329
a great deal about the affair, and hundreds were present
83
00:06:35.370 --> 00:06:38.629
to witness the game. There was a little murmur of
84
00:06:38.709 --> 00:06:43.899
astonishment when Professor Van Dusen appeared. He was slight, almost
85
00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:47.810
childlike in body, and his thin shoulders seemed to droop
86
00:06:47.870 --> 00:06:51.230
beneath the weight of his enormous head. He wore a
87
00:06:51.370 --> 00:06:57.170
number-eight hat. His brow rose straight and dome-like, and a
88
00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:00.639
heavy shock of long yellow hair gave him almost a
89
00:07:00.699 --> 00:07:05.939
grotesque appearance. The eyes were narrow slits of blue, squinting
90
00:07:06.019 --> 00:07:12.319
eternally through thick spectacles. The face was small, clean-shaven, drawn,
91
00:07:12.920 --> 00:07:16.439
and white with the pallor of a student. His lips
92
00:07:16.509 --> 00:07:20.680
made a perfectly straight line. His hands were remarkable for
93
00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:24.240
their whiteness, their flexibility, and for the length of the
94
00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:29.439
slender fingers. One glance showed that physical development had never
95
00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:33.250
entered into the schedule of the scientist's fifty years of life.
96
00:07:34.370 --> 00:07:37.230
The Russian smiled as he sat down at the chess table.
97
00:07:37.790 --> 00:07:41.290
He felt that he was humoring a crank. The other
98
00:07:41.329 --> 00:07:47.610
masters were grouped nearby, curiously expectant. Professor Van Dusen began
99
00:07:47.649 --> 00:07:52.089
the game, opening with a queen's gambit. At his fifth move,
100
00:07:52.550 --> 00:07:57.569
made without the slightest hesitation, the smile left the Russian's face.
101
00:07:59.089 --> 00:08:03.850
At the tenth, the masters grew intensely eager. The Russian
102
00:08:03.910 --> 00:08:09.829
champion was playing for honor now. Professor Van Dusen's fourteenth
103
00:08:09.939 --> 00:08:15.540
move was king's castle to queen's four. Check, he announced.
104
00:08:16.509 --> 00:08:19.730
After a long study of the board, the Russian protected
105
00:08:19.829 --> 00:08:24.470
his king with a knight. Professor Van Dusen noted the play,
106
00:08:24.910 --> 00:08:28.250
then leaned back in his chair with fingertips pressed together.
107
00:08:28.949 --> 00:08:32.529
His eyes left the board and dreamily studied the ceiling.
108
00:08:33.460 --> 00:08:40.759
For at least ten minutes there was no sound, no movement. Then, mate,
109
00:08:41.159 --> 00:08:45.799
in fifteen moves, he said quietly, There was a quick
110
00:08:46.070 --> 00:08:49.909
gasp of astonishment. It took the practiced eyes of the
111
00:08:49.970 --> 00:08:54.950
masters several minutes to verify the announcement. But the Russian
112
00:08:55.009 --> 00:08:59.389
champion saw and leaned back in his chair, a little
113
00:08:59.610 --> 00:09:05.230
white and dazed. He was not astonished. He was helplessly
114
00:09:05.529 --> 00:09:11.399
floundering in a maze of incomprehensible things. Suddenly he arose
115
00:09:11.740 --> 00:09:15.570
and grasped the slender hand of his conqueror. You have
116
00:09:15.769 --> 00:09:21.769
never played chess before? he asked. Never. Mon Dieu! You
117
00:09:21.850 --> 00:09:26.620
are not a man. You are a brain, a machine,
118
00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:33.039
a thinking machine. It's a child's game, said the scientist abruptly.
119
00:09:33.980 --> 00:09:37.220
There was no note of exultation in his voice. It
120
00:09:37.279 --> 00:09:43.360
was still the irritable, impersonal tone which was habitual. This
121
00:09:43.460 --> 00:09:57.549
then was Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph.D., L.L.D., F.R.S., M.D., etc., etc., etc.
122
00:09:58.549 --> 00:10:00.320
This is how he came to be known to the
123
00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:05.580
world at large as the Thinking Machine. The Russian's phrase
124
00:10:05.639 --> 00:10:08.480
had been applied to the scientist as a title by
125
00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:16.779
a newspaper reporter, Hutchison Hatch. It had stuck. End of
126
00:10:16.860 --> 00:10:17.860
The Thinking Machine