Category Archives: Chess Engines

Peter Goodman| Your view

To discuss education in New Mexico, first I gotta rant about education.

I start from two premises: kids desperately want, above all, to learn; and the substance of the first six years of public school could be picked up in six months by a motivated, fairly clever adolescent.

Kids want to learn. Theyre in this huge, confusing world, clueless, and theyre alert as a Hawkshaw for any clue how to be here. Theyre born learning machines.

Parents and schools often beat that out of them. Not with physical beatings (we hope) but with disapproval, judgments and insistence that we know what they should do or be interested in.

My second premise comes from A.S. Neill. His school, Summerhill, was a great experiment thats been followed to good effect. What he did couldnt be replicated in a public school because of budget, community politics and other factors; but what he learned and said shouldnt be dismissed. (We dont dismiss the words of Jesus or John Muir because the world doesnt run that way. We listen to their wisdom, assess it critically and try to harmonize what we learn with life in a world of greed and self-absorption. Follow them as best we can.)

At Summerhill, classes were optional. Some kids attended, others mostly explored the woods or made things. Teachers were there, to teach or answer questions; but if multiplication or algebra seemed less essential than watching the bees or taking apart clocks or engines, so what? If you developed your brain and judgment and powers of concentration doing whatever appealed to you, youd figure out how to apply that basic brainpower and focus to math, grammar, and chemistry when the time came.

Neill had one kid who spent all his time in the woods. At 16, he decided he wanted to take the examination required for further schooling. He learned what he needed to learn in six months.

Schools dont work that way. I get that. But what if they could bend a little. Make chess or bridge available as games that develop certain important aspects of ones intellect, such as problem-solving? Perhaps have a class with no syllabus, or an optional one: Kids could discuss things that matter to them, that pique their curiosity, sans grades or judgment, trying to figure stuff out together?

Everything a child does, from watching adults intently, through pushing or breaking things, to putting everything in her mouth is an experiment. If I do thus or so, what will happen? And while we need to protect children from some serious potential errors, we also need to let them do their job. Their job is doing every experiment they can think up to figure out this crazy world, and only they can see what they need to learn. We can guide them, offer them tools and toys to learn from, and pull a hand away from a hot stove; but controlling kids completely doesnt facilitate real learning.

Schools first principle should be, Kids desperately want to learn. Educators should see themselves as facilitating kids gathering of skills, knowledge, strategies and ideas that can help one survive and prosper. Schools should not see their role as ensuring each kid learns the specific material in a specific syllabus. Kids arrive excited, energetic, cheerful and curious, then many leave sullen and resentful.

We must all nourish that curiosity, helping it flower into knowledge and critical thinking.

More from Peter Goodman:

Las Cruces resident Peter Goodman writes, shoots pictures, and occasionally practices law. His blog athttp://soledadcanyon.blogspot.com/contains further information on this column.

Excerpt from:

Kids want to grow, learn; are we planting seeds of knowledge? - Las Cruces Sun-News

The summer break is officially over, as Max Verstappen looks to continue his recent dominance and lock up his second consecutive championship for Red Bull. The superstar was on a roll before the break, securing back-to-back victories in France and Hungary. He now holds a commanding 80-point lead over Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in the Drivers' Championship standingswith just nine races remaining in the season. Red Bull also leads Ferrari and Mercedes in theConstructors' Championshipas F1 heads to Spa for the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, F1 megastar Lewis Hamilton also reached the podium in France and Hungary, placing second both times. Despite some of his best finishes of the season he remains in sixth place -- two places behind George Russell, his new Mercedes teammate.

Can Leclerc grab some wins to push Verstappen at the top of the standings? Will Hamilton be able to help Mercedes overtake Ferrari for second place in the Constructors' Championship?

The Belgian Grand Prix airs today, Aug. 28, at 8:55 a.m. ET (5:55 a.m. PT) on ESPN 2.

Those looking to follow all the drama will need access to ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPNews to catch every second of the action all season long. The entire race weekend, including practice sessions and qualifying, will be shown in the US on ESPN's family of television networks.

No single provider has exclusive rights to the network, so there are plenty of ways to get ESPN and watch the races without cable. We've broken down everything you need to know in order to stream today's race, and all the other F1 races this season.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen looks to take a stranglehold on the Drivers' Championship.

What is F1 and how is it different from IndyCar?

Both IndyCar and F1 are open-wheeled, single-seater racing formats. This means that the cars can only fit one person and have uncovered wheels that protrude from the body of the vehicle. Despite their basic similarities, F1 and IndyCar offer very different experiences.

In F1, there are only 10 teams, with two drivers apiece for a total of 20 drivers. Most races must go for 305 km, which is about 190 miles. Each driver needs to use two different tires in the race, so a pit stop is mandatory, though cars are not allowed to refuel. Races average around two hours in length and are held at venues all over the world.

Teams spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year developing their cars. All cars must have certain elements -- for example, gearboxes must have eight gears plus a reverse and last for six consecutive races -- but teams have leeway to tweak and change some parts of their car, including their engines, in the pursuit of speed.

In contrast, the cars featured in IndyCar are more standardized. They all have the same aerodynamic kit and chassis and can only be powered by one of two engines -- either a Honda or a Chevrolet. That said, teams are allowed to develop some of their own parts, like dampers and some of their suspensions.

IndyCar races occur on a wide range of tracks, from fast ovals to road and street courses. The length of the races also varies, with some, like the Indianapolis 500, lasting 500 laps and taking over three hours to complete. Not surprisingly, refueling during pit stops is a big part of the strategy during IndyCar races. Teams can field more than two cars, meaning that the amount of drivers on the grid fluctuates from race to race.

IndyCar is mostly considered an American sport and does not have the same level of money and glamour associated with it compared to the globe-hopping F1 circuit.

Why should I care about F1?

F1 races might best be described as a sort of action-packed chess match that takes place while drivers are throttling around a track at close to 200 mph. Teams need both strategy and skill to compete against some of the best minds in motorsports.

F1 is also full of strong personalities. The Netflix documentary series F1: Drive to Survivefollows many of the teams and drivers over the course of a year and has helped raise the profile of the sport in the US. Released in March, season four of the series chronicles last year's tight championship race between rivals Verstappen and Hamilton. It also focuses on the internal battles between drivers on the same team, while giving viewers a peek into the tense, pressurized world of elite racing.

Does F1 stream on ESPN Plus?

ESPN does not air any F1 coverage on its ESPN Plus streaming service. If you want to watch the practices or races you will need a television provider of some kind or to pay for F1's $80 per season TV Pro subscription.

Races are held on Sunday and are usually spaced two weeks apart. Here's the entire schedule, all times ET:

Race weekends normally start on Friday with multiple practice runs and continue on Saturday with qualifying. The races themselves take place Sunday. ESPN typically airs practices and qualifying on a mix of ESPN 2 and ESPNews, while the races tend to air on ESPN. F1 events in North America often land on ABC.

Here are some of the best ways to catch the entire race weekend without cable.

You can catch the entire race weekend with a subscription to YouTube TV. ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPNews are all included in the package, which means you'll have all the channels you need in order to watch every second of the action.

Read our YouTube TV review.

Hulu Plus Live TV is a little more expensive than YouTube TV, but it also offers all the channels you need to watch every second of race weekend. As an added bonus, Hulu Plus Live TV comes with the rest of the Disney Bundle, which includes a subscription to Disney Plus, as well as ESPN Plus. F1 races don't air on ESPN Plus, but the service offers a ton of other content for die-hard sports fans.

Read our Hulu Plus Live TV review.

Sling TV's $35 Orange plan might be a good choice for F1 fans who are primarily looking to just watch the races on Sundays. This plan is one of the cheapest ways to get access to ESPN and ESPN 2. Those looking for ESPNews will have to opt for the $11 Sports Extra ad-on. Sling TV lacks ABC, which could be a problem for fans hoping to catch the F1 races in North America.

Read our Sling TV review.

FuboTV costs $70 per month and includes ABC, ESPN and ESPN 2. The base package lacks ESPNews, but you can add it for an extra $8 a month with the Fubo Extra Package or pay for the $80-a-month Elite streaming tier that includes Fubo Extra. Check out whichlocal networks FuboTV offers here.

Read our FuboTV review.

DirecTV Stream is the most expensive live TV streaming service. Its cheapest, $70-a-month Plus package includes ESPN, ESPN 2 and ABC, but you'll need to move up to the $90-a-month Choice plan to get ESPNews. You can use itschannel lookup toolto see which local channels are available in your area.

Read our DirecTV Stream review.

For gearheads looking to get every angle on the action, F1 offers its own streaming service. F1 TV Pro costs $80 per season and gives fans access to all races from F1, F2, F3 and Porsche Supercup. You'll be able to livestream every track session from all F1 grand prix and have access to all driver onboard cameras and team radios. You'll also be able to watch full on-demand races, replays and highlights, along with F1's historic race archive.

F1 also offers a TV Access Plan for $27 per year, which only gives you on-demand access to races once they have been completed. Users will still be able to view all F1 onboard cameras, along with full replays of F1, F2, F3 and Porsche Supercup. It also includes the historic race archive.

Read more from the original source:

Formula 1 2022: How to Watch the Belgian Grand Prix Today - CNET

by ChessBase Shop - 25/08/2022

For some time now, weve known that the strongest chess engines like to push their flank pawns up the board. This has led to an interesting system, with which we can meet the Grunfeld and the Kings Indian. Studying the mainlines is time consuming, and it is possible that our opponents may know the typical plans in those openings better than us, right? Therefore, it is a great idea to take Grunfeld and Kings Indian players out of their comfort-zone right from the start! Pushing the h-pawn is not a new idea generated by the computers. Now you can learn and edify yourself by Dutch GM and FIDE Trainer, Sipke Ernst on utilizing the 3.h4 ideas in the King's Indian and Grunfeld. Photo: ChessBase

Lets go 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 first and now play 3.h4!?, following in the footsteps of Topalov, who unleashed it against Giri in the candidates tournament of 2016.

Since then, numerous games have been played with 3.h4 by the likes of Carlsen, Caruana, Ding and others. After the surprise, Grunfeld players will find it difficult to strike in the centre with their typical ...d5 followed by ...c5 as it is very hard to ignore whites push on the h-file.

Also, the Kings Indian players will find that their usual attacking ideas on the kingside dont work anymore and will have to resort to other ways of finding counterplay.

Video running time: 4 hours (English)

With interactive training including video feedback

Extra: Model games database & Training with ChessBase apps - Memorize the opening repertoire and play key positions against Fritz on various levels

Meet the Fritztrainer- GM FT Sipke Ernst | Video: ChessBase

Minimum: Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, Windows 7, DirectX 11 graphic card with 256 MB RAM, Windows Media Player 9, ChessBase 14/Fritz 16 or included Reader and internet access for program activation.

Recommended: PC Intel i5 (Quadcore), 4 GB RAM, Windows 10, DirectX 10 graphics card with 512 MB RAM or more, 100% DirectX10-compatible sound card, Windows Media Player 11 and internet access for program activation.

Mac OSX

Minimum: MacOS "Yosemite" 10.10

GM Sipke Ernst is a Grandmaster and FIDE Trainer who has been a member of the Dutch National Team. His peak Elo is 2606.

Read this article:

New: 3.h4 against the Kings Indian and Grnfeld - ChessBase India

Express News Service

The Thiruvallur District Chess Association is one of the better-run institutions affiliated with the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association. It regularly organises tournaments for various age groups and scores of children have benefitted from this initiative. One such girl who has shown flair for chess is 15-year-old Tejaswini G of Velammal School.

The up-and-coming chess player is touted to be the most talented one from the Thiruvallur district. She recently won the first prize in the Thiruvallur District Olympiad selection tournament and got a chance to visit the Chess Olympiad and see some of the finest chess players of the world in action.

I was so happy that I got a chance to visit great players of the world, especially Magnus Carlsen, the current world chess champion. Watching some of the best players in action in a premier gave me a lot of inspiration. Surely the experience will come in handy and help me improve my game, said Tejaswini.Hobby turns passion

Tejaswini started playing chess five years ago and in a short span of time has begun making a mark.

I started playing chess when I was 10 years old. I had an immense interest in playing chess, and that turned into a passion. The wins against my friends at school made me take chess seriously. I worked on my game and won gold medals in the standard and rapid western Asian U-12 Girls Chess Championship in 2019. In Commonwealth 2019, U-12 girls event, I bagged a silver medal. In the SGFI U-14 girls event in 2019, I secured a gold medal, recalled the student of coaches Surendran, Sekar and Lokesh at Viyugam Chess Academy.

Surendran believes that Tejaswini has the potential to become a Grand Master, but wants her to work harder in order to go through the grind.

Tejaswini is very strong; she is managing studies and chess well. She is only able to spend half the time that other players put in, but is equally strong. Whatever work we give her, she completes it despite her hectic schedule. She needs to practise more. As of now its ok, but when she is competing with the best, it wont be enough, he said.

Tejaswini is one of the few players who play online chess with ease and also uses technology to upgrade her game.

I like online chess and I won first prize in the Under-14 girls online National Chess Championship and U-16 girls Online State Championship in 2021. I also use (chess) engines sometimes to prepare for the tournament, she shared.

Medals galore

This year, she won a bronze medal in the U-17 Girls National Championship and the fourth prize in the U-19 Girls National Chess Championship. The bronze medal helped me get selected for the Asian and World U-18 Chess Championship. The dates of these tournaments are yet to be announced, said Tejaswini.

Like any other chess player, she too idolises five-time world champion Vishwanathan Anand and hopes that the legend in his new role as FIDE vice president will do a lot for world chess, particularly for women.

Tejaswini has her goals set to become a world chess champion. But, studies come first. Playing chess helps me be good at studies too. My principal Velmurugan sir and my teachers and headmasters help me a lot in academics and support my chess career also. I scored 489/500 in my class 10 board exams, said Tejaswini, who will be seen in action in the U-15 Girls State Championship to be held in Aruppukottai from September 7 to 11 and the U-15 Girls National Championship in New Delhi from November 7 to 16.

Read the original:

A bright chess champ emerges from Thiruvallur - The New Indian Express

GM Vishnu Prasanna is India's 33rd grandmaster. He has worked as a second to GM Baskaran Adhibanand has also coached many chess players since 2016 including GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly. India's second-highest-rated player, GM Gukesh D, is also his student and they have been working together for the last five years.

In this interview, Chess.com India talked with Vishnu about his coaching career as well as Gukesh's chess journey. The interview was conducted via a video call, and text has been edited for clarity or length.

Chess.com India: When did you start playing chess?

Vishnu Prasanna: (Laughs.) That was ages ago, maybe two decades ago. When I was about twelve years old, I joined the Solar Chess Club in Mylapore. My father taught me the initial moves.

When you were growing up as a player, did you have a role model or favorite players?

I was very much into cricket. So, my mother made me play chess because of GM Vishy Anand! He had won the FIDE World Cup in 2000 in Delhi at that time. I started chess because of Vishy and that's how it is for a lot of players in India. He is somebody I looked up to. Coming to favorite players, it keeps changing. My favorite player at that time was GM Garry Kasparov because of the literature I could read. Kasparov's books were the only accessible literature for me. I would say that Kasparov and Anand were huge influences. Currently, I feel that the favorite player keeps changing.

When and how did you enter the coaching field?

I started coaching somewhere between 2015 and 2016. In the beginning, it was just a way to support myself financially. It turned out that I have a knack for ita talent for it, I guess! In a way, I was always studying chess a lot. Teaching also helped me to put those things into thoughts, thoughts into words, and words that I could share with others.

One of my early students was IM Sidhant Mohopatra from Orissa. He was the first student who became a titled player. After that, a lot of people started asking me for training, and I continued coaching players.

Did you have a role model as a trainer?

No, not really. You can say that I was using my own mistakes to train. This is something that I learned through my mentorSrikanth Govind. It is a little bit about Bruce Lee's philosophy. Not teaching anything very specific but working with the individual.

Did you pursue coaching full-time, or did you combine it with your own tournaments?

It was never a plan to do only coaching. I always enjoy playing, and I'm still continuing to play. Most of my training is also very practical. Playing also helps me to stay in touch. I don't think I will ever stop playing.

Coming to the news of the hour: Gukesh! When did you first realize that Gukesh was special?

He had a very fine positional sense from early on. Our first group camp was in June 2017, and we had individual sessions in the next month. Two months later, Gukesh scored his first IM norm and also became an IM very soon after. We had early successes, and I felt that he was not an average kid for sure. You can never say how fast anyone is going to growthere are stumbles and things that could go wrong at any moment. I knew that he was very strong. For an 11-year-old, some of the moves he suggested were very difficult, and that was something.

Could you give an example or an instance from those early years that made an impression on you?

He was very positionally sound. He played in the center much more than most people I know. I come from a street chess/aggressive kind of school, but the boy was very sound. For instance, we looked at this classic game between Krogius and Smyslov. You expect Black to display some kind of aggression in the position and win the game through an attack, but Smyslov remains super patient with his play and slowly outplays his opponent. Special mention to the move: 20...Rfc8.

This move was quite natural to Gukesh at that point in time. Even as a player, it was not natural to me. So yeah, a lot of things like that. He obviously had weaknesses also, but these were anomalies. 20...Rfc8 is not what most 11-year-olds would spot in that position. They are more likely to spot ideas connected with tactics or tricks.

You were with Gukesh when he was rated 2200. You are now with Gukesh as he is 2700+. Can you review the critical moments of this journey from your perspective?

It is hard to pinpoint everything, but I'll share whatever I remember off the top of my head. The first big thing was his GM norm that he got at the Bangkok Open in Thailand which he got with a little bit of luck. He got lucky in his game against GM Nigel Short. It was not a clean win, but you need luck like that. It sometimes means that fate is helping you even when you are not ready. This was a big moment for him. Gukesh thought: "Maybe, I can become a GM very quickly."

Throughout that year, he kept working and made his remaining GM norms. He made his final GM norm in Delhi. Chasing the records plays on your mind, and Gukesh was fairly upset that he could not finish the final norm in Spain. He had an opportunity to do it there, but he eventually did it 17 days later in Delhi.

There were failures and disappointments, but his understanding improved from those experiences. He was struggling a little bit in a certain sense while he was between 2570-2580, but he was anyway strong, and so he continued to climb. I think that he was still making some practical decisions that could have been easily avoided. He managed to reduce unforced errors.

One of the recent critical moments for me was his performance in Armenia. He was playing really well and had climbed to 2640. Then he played two bad tournaments and came down to 2614. We decided that we had to regroup and do something serious in order to cross 2700. Actually, I thought he was ready and felt that if he maintained consistency, he would break the 2700 barrier. After Armenia, he knew he had to be consistent. He understood that losing a game at this level is a fairly expensive endeavor. So, he tried to focus on that aspect, and he has been doing brilliantly over the last few months. No complaints!

Do you set the goals, or does Gukesh set them on his own?

Gukesh decides for himself. I just say that it's a long journey anyway and ask him not to overestimate anything and keep his head in the zone. He is reacting to goals better. I think he responded much better to the 2700 goal, and he definitely didn't slow down there, which is always good.

What do you have to say about the strategy of playing in many open events in a row?

I think the strategy depends on the player. Everybody eats according to their appetite. So, that's something we also discussed. When he was very young, his appetite was higher. It still remains much higher than an average player, I guess. He still likes to play a lot. So, there's no need to argue with that or fight against that. I think if he can maintain that level, he can play a lot. There's nothing wrong with that.

What tournaments will Gukesh play after the Turkish League? (Gukesh is currently playing in the Turkish league.)

He will play in the Spanish League and the European Club Cup. If he is invited to play in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid and Blitz (in Kolkata), he will play there, or he will play in the World Rapid and Blitz event.

So, that's a busy schedule ahead?

Yeah, definitely. Nowadays, it is very different compared to five years ago. The value of preparation and stuff like that... you can only do so much by sitting at home. Everything changes too fast. So, if you have the energy and appetite, you play.

You mentioned that you were expecting Gukesh to make the climb to 2700. So, you were not surprised by his progress in the last three months?

No, not at all. I was not surprised until the Olympiad. (Smiles.) Everything was fairly normal to me, and I thought that we were headed in the right direction.

How many hours does Gukesh practice chess?

We have never discussed such things. When the interest is there, you don't have to really worry about such things. I think most of the day is spent on chess. It is not just the physical hours he is sitting on the board. He is always thinking about how he can improve, and that's very powerful.

Gukesh didn't use an engine to help him prepare until he reached 2550. Was this a mutual decision or your approach?I told him that it is an idea he can pursue, and he is the only one who pursued my recommendation. I gave the recommendation as an idea. At the FM level, I thought it doesn't matter so mucheven at the GM level. There will always be many mistakes in the game. So I asked him to play for that and asked him to work on other things.

So, you are saying that he would analyze all the games and the mistakes on his own without help in checking the evaluations?

Yes! Just like the old times. Nothing new. Just like chess 15 years ago! I thought it would help him develop his own thinking process and would sharpen him faster.

Did you also use this idea in your own experience?

Yeah. I have tried not to use engines for most of the time in my life.

Gukesh had a few second-place finishes. How did you motivate him to win events after that?

That's not how we work. I believe that everything should come from the selfdiscipline or motivation. We always discussed that only number one matters. It has to be intrinsic, and that's how it has been for Gukesh. I think he is always keen on finishing first wherever he plays.

Shifting now to the 44th Chess Olympiad, did you speak to Gukesh after his soul-crushing loss to GM Abdusattarov Nodirbek?

I was not present at the venue, so I left him a message: such things happen in chess too. I think he has been there before, and this is not his first soul-crushing loss. So, I just left a message and I don't know if he even saw it.

He likes to be in his own zone during the event. So, I don't interfere with that. Vishy Anand had a long talk with him, trying to console him, and Gukesh even played the last round. I wasn't sure about that. When I saw the pairings, I thought, OK, he should be fine.

Where do you see Gukesh one year from now?

I don't really know yet, but I think he will still keep going forward. I don't know how far, but he will keep going in the next year. If he gets the opportunity to play with elite players, he will be up to it.

If you had to attribute the number-one skill to Gukeshs success, what would that be?His tremendous appetite for chessfor both studying and playing chess. I think that kind of appetite is absolutely necessary for what he has done.

Congrats on becoming a father recently. How has that changed you as a person and a coach?

As a coach, I don't know. As a person, you become more patient and become more aware of the little things. You pay more attention; it's a treat. There's nothing to complain about, and it's been a wonderful experience.

Regarding coaching, I have been mostly not doing much. I've only been in touch with Gukesh. I am heading an academy in Sivakasi and my own academy in Chennai. The academy at Sivakasi is set by the Hatsun company. I am the head coach there and have been managing the coaching for them. Personal training, well it is just Gukesh right now. I have been training with other players on and off, but not as much as I used to.

How do you upgrade your skills as a coach these days?

Through experience and interaction with others. When you meet a lot of people, you can see that they are also different. What worked for one person may not work for another. You try to see how else can you make the other player think or how else can you question them or how else can you prompt them to research. I think about the tools that don't exist but could exist and try to bridge that gap through the selection of positions, games etc. I think about what's missing between players of two levels. I'm usually on the lookout for such things. You can see that sometimes there's a pattern there, but most people don't see the same thing or most people could miss the same idea or most people of the same level could miss the same idea.

What are some recommendations you have for aspiring coaches?

That's a hard question! (laughs). Okay, they could start with Jonathan Rowson's books: Seven Deadly Chess Sins and Chess for Zebras. One of the books that had a huge influence on my chess understanding and chess coaching is Lasker's Manual Of Chess. It is a very deep book and one of the best chess books I've ever read, especially the part on positional play. Lasker explains how Steinitz came up with his theories and he also shares his arguments for and against those theories. I would also add GM Boris Gelfand's books.

As a coach, you have to look outside of chess also. Try to come up with your own training philosophy and work with that. The best way to train somebody is according to their belief system rather than yours. You help the student find their own compass and own parameters and assist them with that. Also, my belief is that the student is always a little bit smarter. So, I start from there. It is not always the case, but we have to start from there in my opinion.

Thank you for your time. We wish you the best in all your endeavors!

Thank you for having me. Nice to have this chat!

Special thanks to IM Rakesh Kulkarni for helping with the interview.

Here is the original post:

Interviewing The Coach Of Olympiad Sensation Gukesh - Chess.com

One psychiatrist considers the advantages of virtual psychiatric treatment for both patients and clinicians.

COMMENTARY

Outpatient psychiatry went online in early 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the next 2 years, there were robust discussions about whether virtual psychiatric treatment was effective, whether it was as effective as in-person treatment, whether it was more effective for some patients than for others, and finally, whether psychiatrists and their patients would be returning to the office when the pandemic was over. My comments about each of these considerations will be based on my own experiences as an outpatient psychiatrist and having followed and participated in online discussions about this topic. I will end with a couple of predictions.

The Effectiveness of Virtual Psychiatry

Virtual psychiatric treatment was accepted as valid and effective soon after the invention of the telephone (patented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell1) at the beginning of the 20th century. Psychotherapy was conducted by phone when face-to-face treatment was not possible. Even before COVID-19, psychiatrists were treating patients by phone and on audio-visual platforms as a routine part of their outpatient practice. This most often occurred with patients who were too physically ill to come to the office (although home visits took place as well), when patients were out of town on work travel or on vacation, and when patients had relocated out of state but wanted to maintain their therapeutic relationship with their psychiatrist.

The Chinese American Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA) has been providing virtual teaching, treatment, and supervision for more than 20 years by hundreds of English-speaking psychotherapists stationed in the United States, Canada, Central and South America, and Europe to English-proficient Chinese mental health professionals in Mainland China. It was begun by New York psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Elise Snyder, MD.2 Many CAPA students have graduated from CAPA training programs and have since become teachers and mental health leaders in China. I participated as a voluntary psychotherapist and teacher with CAPA from 2000 to 2010.

The Effectiveness of Virtual vs In-Person Psychiatry

I am reminded of the folk song John Henry in which John Henry, a steel-driving man, competed with a steam drill to crush rocks used in the construction of railroad tracks. In the song, John Henry lost the competition and died with his hammer in his hand. One moral of this song (there are several) is that technological progress will eventually win the day. There have been similar competitions between the horse and the automobile and between grandmaster chess champions and super computers. Such an analogy can now be made between in-person and virtual psychiatry.

Older psychiatrists (and patients) who did not grow up with the internet and social media are quick to point out the advantages of in-person psychiatry. They have said meeting in person enhances the doctor-patient relationship, allows for greater observation of body language, provides a fuller sensorial experience on both sides, gives patients an opportunity to mentally prepare forand to decompress aftertheir in-person office appointments, etc. I will argue that, just as the horse and buggy gave way to the automobile, virtual psychiatry will remain the treatment modality of choice after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

Is Virtual Psychiatry More Effective for Some Patients Than for Others?

This question probably cannot be definitively answered because of the difficulties in conducting the necessary double-blind, placebo-controlled study. We can, however, imagine that for certain diagnostic groups, one modality might be more effective than another. For example, a patient with extreme agoraphobia who is afraid of leaving their home might only benefit from virtual psychiatric treatment. A patient without a telephone or internet service would only benefit from in-person treatment. A patient with severe social phobia or autism might strongly prefer (and be able to benefit from) virtual treatment.

In the future, as younger generations of patients increasingly do more of their communication on virtual platforms (social media, other audio-visual platforms, text messaging, etc), they will be supremely comfortable being treated virtually. The same can be said for younger generations of psychiatrists who will have grown up using virtual communication modalities.

My Experience

Over the past 2-and-a-half years of the pandemic, I have worked virtually with all my patients. I meet with, on average, 8 patients a day, 4 days a week, in 45-minute psychotherapy appointments on Zoom, FaceTime, or Google Duo. I recently decided to close my brick-and-mortar medical office (after 40 years) and establish a 100% virtual practice from my home.

Perhaps because my patients are so used to meeting with me on a virtual platform that, after I announced I would not be returning in-person to my downtown office, none of them dropped out of treatment. When there are connectivity issues, these interruptions become grist for the psychotherapeutic mill. I sometimes mix and match devices. For example, when meeting with patients on my laptop, if the audio stops working on either side, I call my patient on the phone and we use the phone audio to accompany the computer video, or we switch to FaceTime if we both have iPhones.

Some interruptions are due to text messages or phone calls received by the patient (or the psychiatrist). When these are excessive, they must be viewed as a form of transference (or countertransference) resistance to treatment and addressed in the therapy. Some of the same dynamics that appear in in-person treatment play themselves out when treatment has switched to virtual. One patient who was habitually late or absent for her in-person appointments is almost never ready for the start of her virtual appointments, and she frequently oversleeps and misses her entire morning virtual sessions.

Most therapeutic change and progress that occurs in psychodynamic psychotherapy results from the verbal exchange between patient and psychiatrist. It is primarily the patients words that are attended to and analyzed, as well as the pauses between the words, the slips of the tongue, the metonymy and metaphor expressed in the patients use of language, and so on. After a while, the novelty of virtual space fades into the background as telepsychiatry becomes the new norm.

Advantages of Virtual Psychiatry

The main advantage of virtual psychiatry is its convenience, for both the patient and the psychiatrist. Virtual treatment saves time and money that was previously spent on travel to and from the office. It is also safer in a variety of ways. With virtual treatment, there is no possibility of sexual or aggressive impulses being put into action as could happen in in-person treatment. Virtual treatment obviates the possibility of having an automobile accident or getting a parking or speeding ticket on the way to or from the appointment.

Patients and psychiatrists save money on cold weather clothing and paying for gasoline or electricity for their cars. Finally, patients and psychiatrists will not be degrading the environment with carbon emissions from internal combustion engines, and climate change will be slowed.

Final Thoughts

I predict that, just as John Henry lost out to the steam engine, in-person psychiatric treatment will increasingly become a thing of the past. As holographic technology is perfected, improved forms of virtual treatment will become available and commonplace. At the same time, even with continued advancements in pharmacological and somatic psychiatric treatments, I predict that the talking cure will remain for centuries to come.

Dr Perman is a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC.

References

1. Alexander Graham Bell. History. November 30, 2019. Accessed August 8, 2022. https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/alexander-graham-bell

2. CAPA history in China. China American Psychoanalytic Alliance. Accessed August 8, 2022. https://www.capachina.org/capa-in-china

Link:

Virtual Psychiatry is Here to Stay - Psychiatric Times

Image: Gizmodo/Ociacia (Shutterstock)

Gizmodo is 20 years old! To celebrate the anniversary, were looking back at some of the most significant ways our lives have been thrown for a loop by our digital tools.

Like so many others after 9/11, I felt spiritually and existentially lost. Its hard to believe now, but I was a regular churchgoer at the time. Watching those planes smash into the World Trade Center woke me from my extended cerebral slumber and I havent set foot in a church since, aside from the occasional wedding or baptism.

I didnt realize it at the time, but that godawful day triggered an intrapersonal renaissance in which my passion for science and philosophy was resuscitated. My marriage didnt survive this mental reboot and return to form, but it did lead me to some very positive places, resulting in my adoption of secular Buddhism, meditation, and a decade-long stint with vegetarianism. It also led me to futurism, and in particular a brand of futurism known as transhumanism.

Transhumanism made a lot of sense to me, as it seemed to represent the logical next step in our evolution, albeit an evolution guided by humans and not Darwinian selection. As a cultural and intellectual movement, transhumanism seeks to improve the human condition by developing, promoting, and disseminating technologies that significantly augment our cognitive, physical, and psychological capabilities. When I first stumbled upon the movement, the technological enablers of transhumanism were starting to come into focus: genomics, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology. These tools carried the potential to radically transform our species, leading to humans with augmented intelligence and memory, unlimited lifespans, and entirely new physical and cognitive capabilities. And as a nascent Buddhist, it meant a lot to me that transhumanism held the potential to alleviate a considerable amount of suffering through the elimination of disease, infirmary, mental disorders, and the ravages of aging.

The idea that humans would transition to a posthuman state seemed both inevitable and desirable, but, having an apparently functional brain, I immediately recognized the potential for tremendous harm. Wanting to avoid a Brave New World dystopia (perhaps vaingloriously), I decided to get directly involved in the transhumanist movement in hopes of steering it in the right direction. To that end, I launched my blog, Sentient Developments, joined the World Transhumanist Association (now Humanity+), co-founded the now-defunct Toronto Transhumanist Association, and served as the deputy editor of the transhumanist e-zine Betterhumans, also defunct. I also participated in the founding of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), on which I continue to serve as chairman of the board.

Indeed, it was also around this time in the early- to mid-2000s that I developed a passion for bioethics. This newfound fascination, along with my interest in futurist studies and outreach, gave rise to a dizzying number of opportunities. I gave talks at academic conferences, appeared regularly on radio and television, participated in public debates, and organized transhumanist-themed conferences, including TransVision 2004, which featured talks by Australian performance artist Stelarc, Canadian inventor and cyborg Steve Mann, and anti-aging expert Aubrey de Grey.

The transhumanist movement had permeated nearly every aspect of my life, and I thought of little else. It also introduced me to an intriguing (and at times problematic) cast of characters, many of whom remain my colleagues and friends. The movement gathered steady momentum into the late 2000s and early 2010s, acquiring many new supporters and a healthy dose of detractors. Transhumanist memes, such as mind uploading, genetically modified babies, human cloning, and radical life extension, flirted with the mainstream. At least for a while.

The term transhumanism popped into existence during the 20th century, but the idea has been around for a lot longer than that.

The quest for immortality has always been a part of our history, and it probably always will be. The Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh is the earliest written example, while the Fountain of Youththe literal Fountain of Youthwas the obsession of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Len.

Notions that humans could somehow be modified or enhanced appeared during the European Enlightenment of the 18th century, with French philosopher Denis Diderot arguing that humans might someday redesign themselves into a multitude of types whose future and final organic structure its impossible to predict, as he wrote in DAlemberts Dream. Diderot also thought it possible to revive the dead and imbue animals and machines with intelligence. Another French philosopher, Marquis de Condorcet, thought along similar lines, contemplating utopian societies, human perfectibility, and life extension.

The Russian cosmists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries foreshadowed modern transhumanism, as they ruminated on space travel, physical rejuvenation, immortality, and the possibility of bringing the dead back to life, the latter being a portend to cryonicsa staple of modern transhumanist thinking. From the 1920s through to the 1950s, thinkers such as British biologist J. B. S. Haldane, Irish scientist J. D. Bernal, and British biologist Julian Huxley (who popularized the term transhumanism in a 1957 essay) were openly advocating for such things as artificial wombs, human clones, cybernetic implants, biological enhancements, and space exploration.

It wasnt until the 1990s, however, that a cohesive transhumanist movement emerged, a development largely brought about byyou guessed itthe internet.

As with many small subcultures, the internet allowed transhumanists around the world to start communicating on email lists, and then websites and blogs, James Hughes, a bioethicist, sociologist, and the executive director of the IEET, told me. Almost all transhumanist culture takes place online. The 1990s and early 2000s were also relatively prosperous, at least for the Western countries where transhumanism grew, so the techno-optimism of transhumanism seemed more plausible.

The internet most certainly gave rise to the vibrant transhumanist subculture, but the emergence of tantalizing, impactful scientific and technological concepts is what gave the movement its substance. Dolly the sheep, the worlds first cloned animal, was born in 1996, and in the following year Garry Kasparov became the first chess grandmaster to lose to a supercomputer. The Human Genome Project finally released a complete human genome sequence in 2003, in a project that took 13 years to complete. The internet itself gave birth to a host of futuristic concepts, including online virtual worlds and the prospect of uploading ones consciousness into a computer, but it also suggested a possible substrate for the Nospherea kind of global mind envisioned by the French Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Key cheerleaders contributed to the proliferation of far-flung futurist-minded ideas. Eric Drexlers seminal book Engines of Creation (1986) demonstrated the startling potential for (and peril of) molecular nanotechnology, while the work of Hans Moravec and Kevin Warwick did the same for robotics and cybernetics, respectively. Futurist Ray Kurzweil, through his law of accelerating returns and fetishization of Moores Law, convinced many that a radical future was at hand; in his popular books, The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999) and The Singularity is Near (2005), Kurzweil predicted that human intelligence was on the cusp of merging with its technology. In his telling, this meant that we could expect a Technological Singularity (the emergence of greater-than-human artificial intelligence) by the mid-point of the 21st century (as an idea, the Singularityanother transhumanist staplehas been around since the 1960s and was formalized in a 1993 essay by futurist and sci-fi author Vernor Vinge). In 2006, an NSF-funded report, titled Managing Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno Innovations: Converging Technologies in Society, showed that the U.S. government was starting to pay attention to transhumanist ideas.

A vibrant grassroots transhumanist movement developed at the turn of the millennium. The Extropy Institute, founded by futurist Max More, and the World Transhumanist Association (WTA), along with its international charter groups, gave structure to what was, and still is, a wildly divergent set of ideas. A number of specialty groups with related interests also emerged, including: the Methuselah Foundation, the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (now the Machine Intelligence Research Institute), the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, the Foresight Institute, the Lifeboat Foundation, and many others. Interest in cryonics increased as well, with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation and the Cryonics Institute receiving more attention than usual.

Society and culture got cyberpunked in a hurry, which naturally led people to think increasingly about the future. And with the Apollo era firmly in the rear view mirror, the publics interest in space exploration waned. Bored of the space-centric 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars, we increasingly turned our attention to movies about AI, cybernetics, and supercomputers, including Blade Runner, Akira, and The Matrix, many of which had a distinctive dystopian tinge.

With the transhumanist movement in full flight, the howls of outrage became louderfrom critics within the conservative religious right through to those on the anti-technological left. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama declared transhumanism to be the worlds most dangerous idea, while bioethicist Leon Kass, a vocal critic of transhumanism, headed-up President George W. Bushs bioethics council, which explicitly addressed medical interventions meant to enhance human capabilities and appearance. The bioethical battle lines of the 21st century, it appeared, were being drawn before our eyes.

This TIME cover blew my mind when it came out on February 21, 2011.Image: Photo-illustration by Phillip Tolendo for TIME. Prop Styling by Donnie Myers.

It was a golden era for transhumanism. Within a seemingly impossible short time, our ideas went from obscurity to tickling the zeitgeist. The moment that really did it for me was seeing the cover of TIMEs February 21, 2011, issue, featuring the headline, 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal, and cover art depicting a brain-jacked human head.

By 2012, my own efforts in this area had landed me a job as a contributing editor for io9, which served to expand my interest in science, futurism, and philosophy even further. I presented a talk at Moogfest in 2014 and had some futurist side hustles, serving as the advisor for National Geographics 2017 documentary-drama series, Year Million. Transhumanist themes permeated much of my work back then, whether at io9 or later with Gizmodo, but less so with each passing year. These days I barely write about transhumanism, and my involvement in the movement barely registers. My focus has been on spaceflight and the ongoing commercialization of space, which continues to scratch my futurist itch.

What was once a piercing roar has retreated to barely discernible background noise. Or at least thats how it currently appears to me. For reasons that are both obvious and not obvious, explicit discussions of transhumanism and transhumanists have fallen by the wayside.

The reason we dont talk about transhumanism as much as we used to is that much of it has become a bit normalat least as far as the technology goes, as Anders Sandberg, a senior research fellow from the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, told me.

We live lives online using wearable devices (smartphones), aided by AI and intelligence augmentation, virtual reality is back again, gene therapy and RNA vaccines are a thing, massive satellite constellations are happening, drones are becoming important in warfare, trans[gender] rights are a big issue, and so on, he said, adding: We are living in a partially transhuman world. At the same time, however, the transhumanist idea to deliberately embrace the change and try to aim for such a future has not become mainstream, Sandberg said.

His point about transhumanism having a connection to trans-rights may come as a surprise, but the futurist linkage to LGBTQ+ issues goes far back, whether it be sci-fi novelist Octavia Butler envisioning queer families and greater gender fluidity or feminist Donna Haraway yearning to be a cyborg rather than a goddess. Transhumanists have long advocated for a broadening of sexual and gender diversity, along with the associated rights to bodily autonomy and the means to invoke that autonomy. In 2011, Martine Rothblatt, the billionaire transhumanist and transgender rights advocate, took it a step further when she said, we cannot be surprised that transhumanism arises from the groins of transgenderism, and that we must welcome this further transcendence of arbitrary biology.

Natasha Vita-More, executive director of Humanity+ and an active transhumanist since the early 1980s, says ideas that were foreign to non-transhumanists 20 years ago have been integrated into our regular vocabulary. These days, transhumanist-minded thinkers often reference concepts such as cryonics, mind uploading, and memory transfer, but without having to invoke transhumanism, she said.

Is it good that we dont reference transhumanism as much anymore? No, I dont think so, but I also think it is part of the growth and evolution of social understanding in that we dont need to focus on philosophy or movements over technological or scientific advances that are changing the world, Vita-More told me. Moreover, people today are far more knowledgeable about technology than they were 20 years ago and are more adept at considering the pros and cons of change rather than just the cons or potential bad effects, she added.

PJ Manney, futurist consultant and author of the transhumanist-themed sci-fi Phoenix Horizon trilogy, says all the positive and optimistic visions of future humanity are being tempered or outright dashed as we see humans taking new tools and doing what humans do: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Indeed, were a lot more cynical and wary of technology than we were 20 years ago, and for good reasons. The Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Edward Snowdens revelations about government spying, and the emergence of racist policing software were among an alarming batch of reproachable developments that demonstrated technologys potential to turn sour.

We dont talk about transhumanism that much any more because so much of it is in the culture already, Manney, who serves with me on the IEET board of directors, continued, but we exist in profound future shock and with cultural and social stresses all around us. Manney referenced the retrograde SCOTUS reversals and how U.S. states are removing human rights from acknowledged humans. She suggests that we secure human rights for humans before we consider our silicon simulacrums.

Nigel Cameron, an outspoken critic of transhumanism, said the futurist movement lost much of its appeal because the naive framing of the enormous changes and advances under discussion got less interesting as the distinct challenges of privacy, automation, and genetic manipulation (e.g. CRISPR) began to emerge. In the early 2000s, Cameron led a project on the ethics of emerging technologies at the Illinois Institute of Technology and is now a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawas Institute on Science, Society and Policy.

Sandberg, a longstanding transhumanist organizer and scholar, said the War on Terror and other emerging conflicts of the 2000s caused people to turn to here-and-now geopolitics, while climate change, the rise of China, and the 2008 financial crisis led to the pessimism seen during the 2010s. Today we are having a serious problem with cynicism and pessimism paralyzing people from trying to fix and build things, Sandberg said. We need optimism!

Some of the transhumanist groups that emerged in the 1990s and 2000s still exist or evolved into new forms, and while a strong pro-transhumanist subculture remains, the larger public seems detached and largely disinterested. But thats not to say that these groups, or the transhumanist movement in general, didnt have an impact.

The various transhumanist movements led to many interesting conversations, including some bringing together conservatives and progressives into a common critique, said Cameron.

I think the movements had mainly an impact as intellectual salons where blue-sky discussions made people find important issues they later dug into professionally, said Sandberg. He pointed to Oxford University philosopher and transhumanist Nick Bostrom, who discovered the importance of existential risk for thinking about the long-term future, which resulted in an entirely new research direction. The Center for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge and the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford are the direct results of Bostroms work. Sandberg also cited artificial intelligence theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky, who refined thinking about AI that led to the AI safety community forming, and also the transhumanist cryptoanarchists who did the groundwork for the cryptocurrency world, he added. Indeed, Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, subscribes to transhumanist thinking, and his father, Dmitry, used to attend our meetings at the Toronto Transhumanist Association.

According to Manney, various transhumanist-driven efforts inspired a vocabulary and creative impulse for many, including myself, to wrestle with the philosophical, technological and artistic implications that naturally arise. Sci-fi grapples with transhumanism now more than ever, whether people realize it or not, she said. Fair point. Shows like Humans, Orphan Black, Westworld, Black Mirror, and Upload are jam-packed with transhumanist themes and issues, though the term itself is rarelyif everuttered. That said, these shows are mostly dystopian in nature, which suggests transhumanism is mostly seen through gray-colored glasses. To be fair, super-uplifting portrayals of the future rarely work as Hollywood blockbusters or hit TV shows, but its worth pointing out that San Junipero is rated as among the best Black Mirror episodes for its positive portrayal of uploading as a means to escape death.

For the most part, however, transhuman-flavored technologies are understandably scary and relatively easy to cast in a negative light. Uncritical and starry-eyed transhumanists, of which there are many, werent of much help. Manney contends that transhumanism itself could use an upgrade. The lack of consideration for consequences and follow-on effects, as well as the narcissistic demands common to transhumanism, have always been the downfall of the movement, she told me. Be careful what you wish foryou may get it. Drone warfare, surveillance societies, deepfakes, and the potential for hackable bioprostheses and brain chips have made transhumanist ideas less interesting, according to Manney.

Like so many other marginal social movements, transhumanism has had an indirect influence by widening the Overton window [also known as the window of discourse] in policy and academic debates about human enhancement, Hughes explained. In the 2020s, transhumanism still has its critics, but it is better recognized as a legitimate intellectual position, providing some cover for more moderate bioliberals to argue for liberalized enhancement policies.

Transhumanist Anders Sandberg circa 1998. Photo: Anders Sandberg

Sandberg brought up a very good point: Nothing gets older faster than future visions. Indeed, many transhumanist ideas from the 1990s now look quaint, he said, pointing to wearable computers, smart drinks, imminent life extension, and all that internet utopianism. That said, Sandberg thinks the fundamental vision of transhumanism remains intact, saying the human condition can be questioned and changed, and we are getting better at it. These days, we talk more about CRISPR (a gene-editing tool that came into existence in 2012) than we do nanotechnology, but transhumanism naturally upgrades itself as new possibilities and arguments show up, he said.

Vita-More says the transhumanist vision is still desirable and probably even more so because it has started to make sense for many. Augmented humans are everywhere, she said, from implants, smart devices that we use daily, human integration with computational systems that we use daily, to the hope that one day we will be able to slow down memory loss and store or back-up our neurological function in case of memory loss or diseases of dementia and Alzheimers.

The observation that transhumanism has started to make sense for many is a good one. Take Neuralink, for example. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk based the startup on two very transhumanistic principlesthat interfaces between the brain and computers are possible and that artificial superintelligence is coming. Musk, in his typical fashion, claims a philanthropic motive for wanting to build neural interface devices, as he believes boosted brains will protect us from malign machine intelligence (I personally think hes wrong, but thats another story).

For Cameron, transhumanism looks as frightening as ever, and he honed in on a notion he refers to as the hollowing out of the human, the idea that all that matters in Homo sapiens can be uploaded as a paradigm for our desiderata. In the past, Cameron has argued that if machine intelligence is the model for human excellence and gets to enhance and take over, then we face a new feudalism, as control of finance and the power that goes with it will be at the core of technological human enhancement, and democracywill be dead in the water.

That being said, and despite these concerns, Manny believes theres still a need for a transhumanist movement, but one that addresses complexity and change for all humanity.

Likewise, Vita-More says a transhumanist movement is still needed because it serves to facilitate change and support choices based on personal needs that look beyond binary thinking, while also supporting diversity for good.

There is always a need for think tanks. While there are numerous futurist groups that contemplate the future, they are largely focused on energy, green energy, risks, and ethics, said Vita-More. Few of these groups are a reliable source of knowledge or information about the future of humanity other than a postmodernist stance, which is more focused on feminist studies, diversity, and cultural problems. Vita-More currently serves as the executive director of Humanity+.

Hughes says that transhumanists fell into a number of political, technological, and even religious camps when they tried to define what they actually wanted. The IEET describes its brand of transhumanism as technoprogressivisman attempt to define and promote a social democratic vision of an enhanced future, as Hughes defines it. As a concept, technoprogressivism provides a more tangible foundation for organizing than transhumanism, says Hughes, so I think we are well beyond the possibility of a transhumanist movement and will now see the growth of a family of transhumanist-inspired or influenced movements that have more specific identities, including Mormon and other religious transhumanists, libertarians and technoprogressives, and the ongoing longevist, AI, and brain-machine subcultures.

I do think we need public intellectuals to be more serious about connecting the dots, as technologies continue to converge and offer bane and blessing to the human condition, and as our response tends to be uncritically enthusiastic or perhaps unenthusiastic, said Cameron.

Sandberg says transhumanism is needed as a counterpoint to the pervasive pessimism and cynicism of our culture, and that to want to save the future you need to both think it is going to be awesome enough to be worth saving, and that we have power to do something constructive. To which he added: Transhumanism also adds diversitythe future does not have to be like the present.

As Manney aptly pointed out, it seems ludicrous to advocate for human enhancement at a time when abortion rights in the U.S. have been rescinded. The rise of anti-vaxxers during the covid-19 epidemic presents yet another complication, showing the extent to which the public willingly rejects a good thing. For me personally, the anti-vaxxer response to the pandemic was exceptionally discouraging, as I often reference vaccines to explain the transhumanist mindsetthat we already embrace interventions that enhance our limited genetic endowments.

Given the current landscape, its my own opinion that self-described transhumanists should advocate and agitate for full bodily, cognitive, and reproductive autonomy, while also championing the merits of scientific discourse. Until these rights are established, it seems a bit premature to laud the benefits of improved memories or radically extended lifespans, as sad as it is to have to admit that.

These contemporary social issues aside, the transhuman future wont wait for us to play catchup. These technologies will arrive, whether they emerge from university labs or corporate workshops. Many of these interventions will be of great benefit to humanity, but others could lead us down some seriously dark paths. Consequently, we must move the conversation forward.

Which reminds me of why I got involved in transhumanism in the first placemy desire to see the safe, sane, and accessible implementation of these transformative technologies. These goals remain worthwhile, regardless of any explicit mention of transhumanism. Thankfully, these conversations are happening, and we can thank the transhumanists for being the instigators, whether you subscribe to our ideas or not.

From the Gizmodo archives:

An Irreverent Guide to Transhumanism and The Singularity

U.S. Spy Agency Predicts a Very Transhuman Future by 2030

Most Americans Fear a Future of Designer Babies and Brain Chips

Transhumanist Tech Is a Boner Pill That Sets Up a Firewall Against Billy Joel

DARPAs New Biotech Division Wants to Create a Transhuman Future

Read more from the original source:

Whatever Happened to the Transhumanists? - Gizmodo

For a number of reasons, the game of chess has become unprecedentedly popular, partly due to enthusiasts and serious players alike turning to online play on a plethora of websites that established themselves during the pandemic. In parallel, new players have also been drawn in, due to the instrumental and sensational success of Netflixs Queens Gambit series.

Another contributing element has been the creation of the AlphaZero chess-playing engine, with its amazing abilities, including an almost vertical learning curve, resulting in the strongest chess-playing entity the world has ever seen. The science has primarily been the work of Demis Hassabis, rewarded with the CBE for his efforts, and a $400 million sale to Google of his company, Deep Mind. The achievements of Demis, and the brilliantly quasi illogical strategies and tactics of AlphaZero, were likewise already covered in my column Arise Sir Demis . The games were contested against the most powerful available commercial chess programme, called Stockfish itself many times stronger than the IBM Deep Blue programme which defeated Garry Kasparov himself in 1997.

The 1993 World Title Challenger, the British Grandmaster Nigel Short,described the AlphaZero games as being of such beauty that he felt he was in the presence of God. Demis himself explained that his self-taught programme, which had already mastered the near infinite complexities of the oriental games of Shogi (Japanese Chess) and Go, was the key to understanding intelligence itself.

But the rise of the all-conquering thinking engines has been a double-edged sword, arguably undermining the prestige of the human world champion. Further recent developments have reinforced this perception and the aura of the human world chess championship has consistently declined.

This week I return to a further contributing development, the meteoricrise, lasting domination, but sudden abdication of the Norwegian World Chess Champion, Magnus Carlsen.

The culmination of a long line of champions, which stretches back into the 18th century, Carlsen is also a uniquely talented representative of the modern era. Magnus has attained the highest-ever chess rating recorded, outclassing even the mighty Kasparov.

Magnus wins virtually every competition which he enters, and has adapted seamlessly to the coronavirus crisis, which, as we have seen, has obliged chess to migrate online to a huge extent. Magnus has prudently avoided the damage to his reputation occasioned by suffering defeats against chess computers, a fate which overtook both Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik.Finally, Magnus has leveraged all the opportunities afforded by his title of World Chess Champion, adapting perfectly to the modern environment, even to the extent of floating his online chess company, Play Magnus, for $85 million dollars, while simultaneously earning a fortune as a trendy ambassador for the fashion line G-Star Raw, often appearing alongside the Hollywood superstar Liv Tyler.

The title of World Chess Champion dates to no later than 1886, when Wilhelm Steinitz defeated Johannes Zukertort in a gladiatorial contest, specifically designed to resolve the question of who was the strongest player in the world after Paul Morphys death in 1884, though Steinitz had claimed that status since 1866. Less clear is whether the great predecessors of Steinitz also merited that proud title. Part of the difficulty of authentication is lack of evidence of important contests and gaps in the record.

The story begins in the 18th century, when the French chess expertFranois-Andr Danican Philidorwon an important match in 1747 against the erudite Philip Stamma, translator of oriental languages to the court of King George II. Sadly, none of those games has survived. Following Philidor, who died in 1795, there comes a hiatus, until the brief flourishing of La Bourdonnais during the 1830s. After this, there is a further gap in the record until the 1840s, when the French heir to the Philidor tradition, Saint-Amant, was overthrown in Paris, the epicentre of European chess life at that time, by the English champion Howard Staunton.

Fortunately, from Staunton onwards, there is a relatively unbroken line of succession, with each champion being dethroned by the next in line. The exceptions are the trinity of Morphy, Fischer (both of whom simply downed tools), and Alekhine (who died in office), thus permanently preserving their hallowed nimbus of invincibility. Until the death of Alekhine, the title was in effect the personal property of the champion himself.

The first great player who could be considered a World Champion was Philidor, whodominatedthe chess scene of his day. The term World Champion was not used when describing him, with commentators preferring to employ such metaphors as wielding the sceptre. There is also the problem that very few of Philidors games on level terms have survived, his reputation largely being constructed on his blindfold simultaneous displays, which so electrified London chess enthusiasts. Philidor was able to conduct three games blindfold at once, a feat that led to a letter of admonishment from the French encyclopaedist, Denis Diderot, warning Philidor that such exploits might lead to brain damage.

It is interesting to note that Philidor was the first great apostle of pawn power in chess. According to Philidor, pawns determined the structure of thegame;they were in fact the soul of chess, not mere cannon fodder, whose sole task was to make way for the power of the pieces. In this respect his chess teachings paralleled the rise of the masses embodied in the French Revolution of 1789.

France was the dominant chess nation at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, and the next player after Philidorwho couldbe considered an early world champion was the 19th-century French master Louis-Charles Mah de La Bourdonnais. His claim to fame rests primarily on his mammoth series of matches against Alexander McDonnell, contested in London in 1834. This represented the finest corpus of games ever created up to that time and numerous generations of chess devotees learned their basic chess strategies and tactics from these ingenious and well contested battles. Both protagonists appear to have become mentally exhausted by their efforts and died shortly after their epic series.

In the panoply of proto-champions, Howard Staunton, the Victorian polymath, Shakespearean scholar, and assiduous chronicler of the English schools system, is the only English player who could legitimately be considered as world champion. In a series of matches between 1843 and 1846, Staunton defeated the French master Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, followed closely by victories against the German master Bernhard Horwitz and Daniel Harrwitz, originally from Poland. Stauntons match against Saint-Amant was the first contest at the highest level that closely resembled the template for modern World Championship competitions. The design of chess pieces in regular use for important competitions, including the2018 Londoncontest between Carlsen and his challenger, Fabiano Caruana, are named the Staunton pattern, after Howard Staunton.

The German master Adolf Anderssen seized the sceptre from Howard Staunton when he decisively defeated the English champion in the very first international tournament in London 1851. Anderssen was one of that select group, which includes Mikhail Botvinnik and Viswanathan Anand, who initially assumed the accolade of supreme chess master from a tournament rather than a match. The London event was in fact put together by Staunton, who thereby created a perfect pretext for losing out to Anderssen in their knockout match, it being notoriously difficult to compete in an event, whilst simultaneously organising it.

Paul Morphy was the American meteor who took the world by storm over thetwo momentous, whirlwind years of 1857 and 1858. His grand tour of Europe culminated in a match victory against Adolf Anderssen, after which Morphy was universally acknowledged as the worlds greatest player. Thereafter Morphy issued a challenge to anyone in the world to take him on at odds (Morphy starting the game with a pawn handicap) but no one accepted. At this point the meteor had burnt itself out and Morphy, tragically, retired from chess, a curious forerunner of Bobby Fischers behaviour following his famous 1972 World Championship victory against Boris Spassky.

Morphy understood the principles of chess better than anyone who came before him. Anderssens tactical brilliance sprang like Athene from the head of Zeus, without necessarily having grown from regular organic pre-conditions. Morphy, on the other hand, constructed his positions along sound strategic and positional lines, before unleashing his devastating arsenal of tactical weaponry.On Morphys retirement, Anderssen resumed the position of world leadership which had belonged so fleetingly to the first great genius of American chess.

Anderssen can claim to be one of the supreme tacticians of all time. Three of his wins are of imperishable beauty. On their own they would justify anyones devotion to chess. They are his Immortal Game against Kieseritsky (played at Simpsons-in-the-Strand, not the tournament) of London, 1851; his Evergreen game against the pseudonymous Dufresne (in reality the German player E. S. Freund) of Berlin 1856, and his majestic sacrificial masterpiece against Zukertort of Breslau,1869.

Anderssen lost a match in 1866 toWilhelm Steinitz, the first player who could definitively be describedas an official World Champion. The previous wielders of the sceptre, Philidor, La Bourdonnais,Staunton, Morphy and Anderssen himself,were all, at the time, acknowledged as the leading chess practitioners of their day, but it is less clear that the title world champion had been universally accepted. Steinitz, on the other hand, insisted on this description and he himself dated his tenure from his 1866 match victory, also in London, against Anderssen. Steinitzs pre-eminence wasconfirmed 20 years later when he demolished Johannes Zukertort in their 1886 match in the US, which was the first to be specifically described as a World Championship contest.

Thus if the 18th century laid the foundations for a world championship, it was the 19th century that grounded the roots. The 20th century maintained thevolcanic procession of greats with thecolossusEmanuel Lasker spanning thefin de sicle. Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Karpov, and Kasparov dominated nearly all of this most modern epoch, with Anand bridging the 20th and 21st centuries. In this century, there has been one singleforceirrsistiblein the form of Magnus Carlsen.

From 1946 onwards the prestige of the world title was largely upheld by the world governing body FID and partly by my own organisations, which carried the torch in 1993 (Kasparov v Short) and 2000 (Kasparov v Kramnik).

However, in recent years, primarily during the reign of Carlsen, the length of the championship match has shrunk from its traditional 24 games to a mere 12 (plusrapid play offs).The most recent world championship match, staged in Dubai last year, was run entirely under the auspices of FID, the authority of which is now universally accepted under the Presidency of the Russian Arkady Dvorkovich.

The implication is thatchess at this exalted level is a sport, both mentalandphysical an appropriately termed Mind Sport. As the Championship was in process a wonderful flash of confirmatory news emerged from the media: Magnus Carlsen was nominated, in Norway, to win the Sports Personality of the Year. This Championship had emerged as a realBattle of the Titans. Magnus had now won five world title bouts, twice versus Anand, once each against Karjakin , Caruana and Nepomniachtchi. Two ended with the tie-breaks, at which Magnus excels. On the second such occasion, Magnus praised Fabiano, as being his most difficult opponent.

With victory in Dubai, Magnus had secured his tenure as World Champion until 2023. He would then have held the title for 10 years, thus moving into an equal category of championship longevity with such greats as Capablanca, Petrosian, Karpov , Kramnik and Anand, ahead of the short-lived tenures of Euwe, Smyslov, Tal, Spassky and Fischer. Only Steinitz, Lasker, Alekhine, Botvinnik, and Kasparov held the title for significantly longer periods. In the modern world, where everything has speeded up, could Carlsen go on to outperform all these titans?

The answer we now know to be: no.

In abdicating the title Carlsen has left ambiguity over whether he will return. Had he, with Boris Johnson,mimicked the Terminators popular quip (Hastala vista, Baby), wecould still wonder whether this was just goodbye or, alternatively, see you later. Carlsens farewell, though, seems a touch more final.

This week sfinal gameexemplifies the key ingredients of a Magnus triumph. The game was the decisive win which clinched Magnus World Title defence against the notorious Putin supporter Sergei Karjakin. Just as Karjakin seemed on the point of gaining counterplay, Magnus struck his rival down with a surprise Queen sacrifice.

Unlike Karjakin and Caruana, his two previous counterparts in contesting the crown, Ian Nepomniachtchi has maintained his challengers form into a second successive cycle. He has earned his right to lay down another challenge, but should this prove unsuccessful, we must wonder what transformation would await the world of Caissa if Ding Liren (the runner-up in the qualifying tournament, pictured above) were to prove victorious in the now mandatory ersatz championship against Nepomniachtchi. Could Ding be crowned the first Chinese World Champion in classical chess ?

Raymond Keenes latest book Fifty Shades of Ray: Chess in the year of the Coronavirus, containing some of his best pieces from TheArticle, is now available from Blackwells .

We are the only publication thats committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one thats needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout the pandemic. So please, make a donation.

Continue reading here:

Beyond Carlsen: the devaluation of the World Chess Championship - TheArticle

The Bartholomew County Public Library will host a Battleship tournament for teens today at 2 p.m.

Kids and teens

BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY, 536 Fifth St., Columbus. Scheduled: Library Babies, 10 a.m., July 21, 28; Block OClock, 11 a.m., July 21, 28; Storytime: Ages 1-5, 1 p.m., July 21, 28; Thursgame: Battleship Tournament, 2 p.m., July 21; Fan Club: Dragons!, 4 p.m., July 21; Kids Art Studio, 12:30 p.m., July 22, 29; Pirate LARP for Tweens, 4 p.m., July 22; Teen Lock-In: Oceans of Possibilities, 6:30 p.m., July 22; Farmers Market Storytime, 9 a.m., July 23; Mondays at Mill Race Storytime, 10 a.m., July 25; D.I.G. Time, 2 p.m., July 25; Teen Anime Club, 3 p.m., July 25; Storytime, 6 p.m., July 25; Toddler Time, 10 a.m., July 26; Storytime, 11 a.m., July 26; Patio Playdate, 11:30 a.m., July 26; Artistic Tuesday, 12:30 p.m., July 26; Teen Book Club: Oceans of Possibilities, 4 p.m., July 26; Game Time, 12:30 p.m., July 27; Watch-It Wednesday, 4 p.m., July 27; Cardio Drumming, 4 p.m., July 27; Thursgame: Dungeons and Dragons, 4 p.m., July 28; Teen DIY: Painted Bookends, 3 p.m., July 29; Origami Workshop, 4 p.m., July 29; Henry Moores Birthday Party, 2 p.m., July 30; Columbus Animal Care Services Midnight Loop, 7 p.m., July 30; French Storytime, 4 p.m., Aug. 4.

STONE BELT ART DISPLAY, all day, to July 31, Bartholomew County Public Library, 536 Fifth St., Columbus. Come and enjoy artwork created by artists at Stone Belt Disability Services by visiting an ocean- and environmental-themed exhibition at BCPL.

Music and theater

STELLAR SUMMER NIGHTS, 6 p.m., July 22 and Aug. 26, Stellar Plaza, downtown North Vernon. Live music, entertainment and more sponsored by North Vernon Main Street. Free and open to the public.

THE FABULOUS HICKBILLYS, 6 to 7 p.m., July 29, Bartholomew County Public Library, 536 Fifth St., Columbus. Join us on the Library Plaza for a concert by the Fabulous Hickbillys. Bring your own chairs. This event can also be viewed live at facebook.com/mybcpl.

[emailprotected], 7 to 9 p.m., July 29, First United Methodist Church, 618 8th St., Columbus. Join pianist Nikolaos Pine in an evening with great works for solo piano. The program consists of composers varying from the classicism of Haydn going through the virtuosity of Rachmaninov, Chopin, and Liszt. Admission is free; donations encouraged.

Educational

FOUNDERS FRIDAYS, 8 to 9 a.m., Fridays through Aug. 29, Lucabe Coffee Co., 310 4th St., Columbus. Each week, one business founder shares the ups and downs of his or her entrepreneurial journey. The free event is held in the meeting room at Lucabe Coffee Co. Coffee will be provided. The event is open to the public. Participants enjoy the opportunity for questions and answers from the areas leading innovators in a relaxed environment.

KNITTING FOR ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS, 3:30 to 5 p.m., July 21, Shabby Sheep and Ewe, 1113 16th St., Columbus. Knitting classes for absolute beginners. $30 covers two classes. To register, contact shabbysheepandewe.com or come in to the shop. Check website for hours.

Sports, exercise, wellness

BACK TO SCHOOL SKATE, 1 to 3 p.m., July 22, Hamilton Community Center and Ice Arena, 2501 Lincoln Park Dr., Columbus. Help us send the summer off right with an afternoon of cool skating! We will be collecting school supplies that will be donated to the Bartholomew County School Supply Assistance Program. Checks can also be made out to Bartholomew County School Supply Assistance Program.

SUPERHERO COMIC COSMIC SKATE, 7 to 9 p.m., July 22, Hamilton Community Center and Ice Arena, 2501 Lincoln Park Dr., Columbus. Join us at Hamilton Community Center and Ice Arena for some cosmic superhero skating! Admission for public session: 4 & under is free, Child (5-17 years) is $5 per person, Adult (18+) is $5.50 per person. Skate/scooter rental is $2 per rental. Children ages 4 and under must be accompanied by a paying adult.

BLACKWELL PARK STORYWALK, Blackwell Park, 1550 Whitney Court, Columbus. Enjoy some fresh air while strolling the Bartholomew County Public Librarys StoryWalk. Together with the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department, the library is excited to bring you Marlo by Christopher Browne in July and Isabel and Her Colores Go to School by Alexandra Alessandri in August. The StoryWalk is located along the People Trail near the Pollinator Park in Blackwell Park.

LEARN TO PLAY HOCKEY, 4:15 to 5:15 p.m., most Saturdays through Oct. 1, Hamilton Community Center and Ice Arena, 2501 Lincoln Park Dr., Columbus. A noncompetitive environment in which children ages 4 to 10 can learn the basic skills of hockey without distractions that are often associated with an overemphasis on winning. Free equipment is available to use. Cost is $5 per child. Arrive 30 minutes early to get fitted for equipment.

GIRLS HOCKEY, 6 to 7 p.m., Mondays, through Oct. 10, Hamilton Community Center and Ice Arena, 2501 Lincoln Park Dr., Columbus. Are you a girl interested in hockey? Come join us for a girls-only hockey class and learn the fundamentals and basic skills of hockey. For ages 7-16. $10 drop in fee.

SWIMMING FOR EXERCISE, Foundation for Youth, 405 Hope Ave., Columbus. Lap swimming, water aerobics and public swim are available. You must preregister for current swim sessions. Information: foundationforyouth.com.

Seasonal

COLUMBUS FARMERS MARKET, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Saturdays through Sept. 17, south of Columbus City Hall, 123 Washington St., Columbus. The market averages more than 100 full- and part-time vendors offering a range of plants, made-to-order food, lotions/soaps, coffee, honey, crafts, meats, eggs, baked goods, produce and more! More details can be found at columbusfarmersmarket.org or follow on Facebook for weekly entertainment updates.

JENNINGS COUNTY FARMERS MARKET, 8 a.m.-noon, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays through mid-October, North Vernon City Park, 604 N. State St. More information is available on the Jennings Countys Farmers Market Facebook page.

Miscellaneous

BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY, 536 Fifth St., Columbus. Scheduled: Writing the Moments that Matter: Capturing Stories Creatively, 10 a.m., July 22; All Bookd Book Club, 5:30 p.m., July 26; Henry Moores Birthday Party, 2 p.m., July 30; Columbus Animal Care Services Midnight Loop, 7 p.m., July 30; Drawing as Seeing, 9:30 a.m., Aug. 4.

CAR SHOW, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., July 23, Sandy Hook United Methodist Church, 1610 Taylor Road, Columbus. Columbus Salvation Army will hold their annual Car Show. Free fun for the whole family. Items for sale include concessions, T-shirts and raffle ticket. There will be a silent auction going on. Preregistration is $15 per car and $20 day of the show. Trophies given to top 40 cars, Peoples Choice and Car Club. For info, please contact Nancy Johnson at 812-372-7118.

ELKS LODGE BINGO, 6:30 p.m. Fridays and 12:30 p.m. Sundays, Elks 521 Lodge Bingo Hall, 4664 Ray Boll Blvd., Columbus. Doors open at 5 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. on Sunday. The first game is at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. Open to the public. Information: 812-379-4386.

VFW POST 1987 BINGO, 215 N. National Road, Columbus. Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 to 9:30 p.m. (doors open at 5 p.m.), second Saturday of the month from 2 to 6 p.m. (doors open at noon). Open to the public.

AMERICAN LEGION BINGO & KARAOKE, American Legion Post 25, 2515 25th St., Columbus. Bingo is on Tuesdays starting at 6 p.m. Karaoke is on Wednesdays starting at 6 p.m.

COLUMBUS CHESS CLUB, 5 to 9 p.m., Thursdays, Lewellen Chapel, corner of Middle Road and Grissom Street, Columbus. Equipment is furnished. Open to chess players 16 and older. Information: 812-603-3893.

COLUMBUS AREA RAILROAD CLUB OPEN HOUSE, noon to 4 p.m. Aug. 20 and the third Saturday of each month. Trains will be operating layouts in four scales HO, N, O, and On30. The club is located at the Johnson County Park headquarters building adjacent to Camp Atterbury. Information: Greg Harter, 812-350-8636, columbusarearailroadclub.com, or on Facebook at Columbus Area Railroad Club.

AMERICAN SEWING GUILD NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING, 9 to 11:30 a.m., Aug. 6 and the first Saturday of each month, Bartholomew County REMC, 1697 W. Deaver Road, Columbus. Each monthly meeting focuses on learning a new sewing/creative skill or group sewing on a philanthropic project. Sewing enthusiasts of all ages and skills are welcome. Contact Marilyn at [emailprotected] with questions.

GRACES TABLE DRIVE-IN FREE MEAL, 5 p.m., Aug. 14 and the second Sunday of each month, East Columbus United Methodist Church, 2439 Indiana Ave., Columbus. Drive-in free meal as well as music and storytelling. Enter the church parking lot on Indiana Avenue. Tables are available for walk-ups.

Galleries, museums, exhibits

BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 524 Third St., Columbus. The museum is open Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. BCHS hosts two permanent exhibits that share the history and heritage of Bartholomew County. Learn about our county through interactive, hands-on exhibits that include a map table, notable people, county timeline, Then and Now, Did You Know, early industrialists and videos of Reeves steam engines. The historical society also hosts rotating exhibits throughout the year featuring items from their extensive collection. Information: 812-372-3541, bartholomewhistory.org.

GALLERY 506, Columbus Indiana Visitors Center, 506 Fifth St., Columbus. Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

YELLOW TRAIL MUSEUM/VISITOR CENTER, west side of Hope Town Square, 644 Main St., Hope. The museum is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from Noon to 4 p.m. or by appointment. Cruise-ins will be on the first Friday of August and September. The Research Center is open on Monday and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to noon or by appointment. Contact the museum at 812-546-8020. Follow the Facebook page Yellow Trail Museum/Hope Visitors Center for updated information.

ATTERBURY-BAKALAR AIR MUSEUM, located at Columbus Municipal Airport, 4742 Ray Boll Blvd., Columbus, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Special tours may be scheduled by calling 812-372-4356. The museum preserves the history of the former Atterbury Army Air Field, later named Bakalar Air Force Base. Free admission. Visit the museum online at atterburybakalarairmuseum.org and on Facebook.

T.C. STEELE STATE HISTORIC SITE, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, 4220 T.C. Steele Road, Nashville. Staff is offering special indoor tours each with a limited number of people. Tours are included with site admission, but preregistration is recommended by calling 812-988-2785. Information: indianamuseum.org/tcsteele.

TRI-STATE ARTISANS, 422 Washington St., Columbus. Handmade retail gallery of more than 60 local artisans. Unique gifts, fine art, art classes for youth and adults, youth art programs, art parties and home parties. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. Information: tsartisans.com.

JENNINGS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM, 335 Brown St., Vernon. Museum hours are Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. or by appointment. Information: 812-346-8989, jenningscounty.org.

BROWN COUNTY ART GUILD, 48 S. Van Buren St., Nashville. Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays.

THE REPUBLIC BUILDING GALLERY, 333 Second St., Columbus. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

411 GALLERY, 411 Sixth St., Columbus. 411 is a community arts gallery and cultural space for exhibitions, events and collaborations with Columbus arts and cultural organizations. Learn more about the current exhibition and artists at artsincolumbus.org/411.

HOOSIER ARTIST GALLERY, 45 S. Jefferson St., Nashville. Hoosier Artist Gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Masks are required. Information: hoosierartist.com.

BROWN COUNTY ART GALLERY, 1 Artist Drive, Nashville. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. COVID-19 protocols are in place, with masks required. Information: 812-988-4609, [emailprotected], browncountyartgallery.org.

CHARLENE MARSH STUDIO & GALLERY, 4013 Lanam Ridge Road, Nashville. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Monday, noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, please call the studio/gallery at 812-988-4497 or visit charlenemarshstudio.com.

Ongoing

FABULOUS FIRST FRIDAYS WITH MISS POLLY, 12:15 p.m. the first Friday of each month. Viewpoint Books, 548 Washington St., Columbus. Information: 812-376-0778.

FOUNDATION FOR YOUTH BOYS & GIRLS CLUB, 405 Hope Ave., Columbus. The Boys & Girls Club is open to children ages 5-18. Information: 812-372-7867.

KIDSCOMMONS, 309 Washington St., Columbus. Ongoing activities are all free with museum admission. Information: 812-378-3046.

Original post:

Go! Guide July 21 - The Republic

In 2021, Nikhil Kamath, founder of Zerodha, defeated five-time world champion Vishwanathan Anand in chess with the help of computers (he confessed later on) at a celebrity fundraiser. The controversy sparked discussions around the use of AI in the game of chess.

As India is all set to host the 44th edition of the Chess Olympiad in Mahabalipuram starting on July 28, lets look at how AI has impacted the game of chess.

The earliest mention of technology in chess can be traced back to the 18th century when Austrian empress Maria Theresa commissioned a chess-playing machine. Many players competed against the Mechanical Turk, thinking it was an automated machine. However, it turned out to be a scam. A human hidden inside the machine was operating it.

In the mid-1940s, British mathematician Alan Turing began theorising how a computer could play chess against a human. In 1949, Claude Shannon published a seminal paper describing a potential program to do exactly that. In 1950, Alan Turing created a program capable of playing chess. Soon after, the Dietrich Prinz and Bernstein chess program burst into the scene.

Computer chess appeared for the first time in the 1970s. MicroChess, the first commercial chess program for microcomputers, in 1976; Chess Challenger in 1977; and Sargon, which won the worlds first computer chess tournament for microcomputers, in 1978.

The robotic chess computers came about in the 1980s. Boris Handroid, Novag Robot Adversary and Milton Bradley Grandmaster are some examples. The most popular was Chessmaster 2000, which ruled the chess video and computer games industry for the next two decades.

As chess computers were gaining popularity in the 1980s, Gary Kasparov, the then world chess champion, claimed AI-driven chess engines could not defeat top-level chess grandmasters. However, in 1989 and 1996, Kasparov beat IBMs powerful chess engines, Deep Thought and Deep Blue.

Things started to change in the late 1990s. In 1997, Deep Blue defeated Kasparov. A year later, Kasparov came up with the idea of Cyborg chess or centaur chess, in which human and computer skills are combined to up the level of the game. The first cyborg chess was held in 1998.

In 2017, AlphaZero, a computer program developed by DeepMind, defeated the worlds strongest chess engine Stockfish. AlphaZero used the reinforcement learning technique in which the algorithm mimicked humans learning process to train its neural networks.

In 2018, TalkChess.com released Leela Chess Zero, developed by Gary Linscott (who also developed Stockfish). Without having any chess-specific knowledge, Leela Chess Zero learned the game based on deep reinforcement learning using an open-source implementation of AlphaZero.

In 2019, DeepMind came up with another algorithm based on reinforcement learning called MuZero.

Chess players use AI-driven chess engines to analyse their and competitors games. As a result, AI has helped in improving the quality of games.

Post pandemic a lot of chess competitions were moved online. In the European Online Chess Championship, as many as 80 participants were disqualified for cheating. FIDE, the international chess body, has approved an artificial intelligence-driven behaviour-tracking module for the FIDE Online Arena games. Chess.com, an internet chess server, uses a cheat detection system to assess the probability of a human player matching the moves of a chess engine or surpassing the games of some of the greatest chess players with the help of a statistical model. DeepMind is also working to develop a new cheat detection software.

AI has also brought down the cost and effort of training and helped develop new chess strategies.

AI has indeed changed the dynamics of the game. However, using AI in chess has raised a few issues. Computer chess engines have significantly improved gameplay. However, people have also raised concerns that players of this age depend too much on machine-driven analysis.

Even when it comes to detecting cheating, AI poses a few issues. First, there is a possibility a player might be wrongly red-flagged by AI. For example, a Chess.com player and grandmaster, Akshat Chandra, was banned after a win against Hikaru as his moves supposedly matched Komodo, a strong positional chess engine. Though Chandra has been proved innocent, his reputation took a hit.

Chess engines and deep learning-based neural networks present enormous possibilities. Moreover, the complex nature and the strategic orientation of the game have provided a ground for assessing any progress in the field of artificial intelligence. They (games) are the perfect platform to develop and test ideas for AI algorithms. Its very efficient to use games for AI development, as you can run thousands of experiments in parallel on computers in the cloud and often faster than real-time, and generate as much training data as your systems need to learn from. Conveniently, games also normally have a clear objective or score, so it is easy to measure the progress of the algorithms to see if they are incrementally improving over time, and therefore if the research is going in the right direction, said DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis.

See the rest here:

Chennai Chess Olympiad and AI - Analytics India Magazine