Not quite checkmate

Ten years ago this week, a computer beat the world chess champion in a six-game match. Since then, human champs have played three more matches...

Ten years ago this week, a computer beat the world chess champion in a six-game match. Since then, human champs have played three more matches against machines, scoring two draws and a loss. Grandmasters are being crushed. The era of human dominance is over.

Chess was supposed to be an art machines would never conquer. Now they8217;re conquering it. The sma rter they get, the more threatened we feel.

Don8217;t be afraid. We, too, are getting smarter, and computers are a big reason why. They8217;re not our enemies. They8217;re our offspring 8212; our creations, helpers and challengers.

We certainly needed the challenge. Chess computers, in particular, have exposed our complacency. Grandmasters used to dismiss computers as calculators, unfit for elite competition. Our vanity was so blinding that in 1997, when world champion Garry Kasparov lost to a machine called Deep Blue, he implied that the computer had received human coaching during the match.

Five months ago, the current champ, Vladimir Kramnik, overlooked an instant checkmate by his artificial opponent, Deep Fritz. 8220;I rechecked this variation many times and analysed quite far ahead,8221; Kramnik protested. 8220;It seemed to me I was winning.8221;

The remarkable thing about us isn8217;t our fight for supremacy over computers. It8217;s our interaction with them. Yes, chess programmes have been getting smarter. But they didn8217;t do that on their own. Humans design the hardware and write the code. Grandmasters test and refine it. The machines get smarter because the code gets subtler because the programmers get wiser.

In the big picture, whether the computer beats us isn8217;t important. Either way, it8217;s a human triumph. In fact, it8217;s a greater human triumph when the computer wins. Because as a programmer, you have articulate rules that will generate such brilliance.

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From microwaves to cellphones to word processors, computers are extending our intelligence, forcing us to higher levels of thought. When the cosmic game between humans and computers is complete, here8217;s how the sequence of moves will read. In the opening, we evolved through engagement with nature. In the middle game, we projected our intelligence onto computers and co-evolved through engagement with them. In the endgame, we merged computers with our minds and bodies, bringing that projected intelligence back into ourselves. The distinction between human and artificial intelligence will turn out to have been artificial.

You don8217;t need to be a machine to see the endgame unfolding. Last year, a Missouri teen-ager reached the third level of Space Invaders by operating the gun through wires attached to his brain. Today, the European Union is developing a cybernetic dental implant that can medicate you according to a dosage and schedule programmed by your doctor. In Russia, Kasparov has retired from chess and moved on to what he calls 8220;larger competition8221; 8212; leading a movement against the country8217;s authoritarian regime. You can read all about it on his Web site. All you need is a computer.